Liza Leyla, the acclaimed poet, translator, and philosophical researcher from East Flanders, Belgium, is a voice of shimmering importance across languages and cultures. Her creative journey, composed with translations of masters like Pascal Vrebos and Stendhal, blossoms further through her original poetry, multi elements of myth, philosophy, and the intimate tremors of human experience. Through works such as Nostalgie Chromatique, Les Lèvres du Néant, and Crépuscule des déesses, Leyla travels the shifting frontiers of being, from metaphysical inquiry to lyrical exploration of feminine myths. Her linguistic project Lingua & Littera attests to her devotion to intersubjectivity, while her poems radiate an enduring call for peace and dignity, even set to music by M.I. Behleem.
The poems Raindrops, Philosophical Stone, Revival, and Another Travel of the Moon reveal Leyla’s deft mastery of image and feeling. Raindrops transform gentle tears into cosmic balm against violence, evoking a fragile beauty in a deserted metropolis. Philosophical Stone celebrates exuberant winds and poetic vibrations that awaken the philosopher’s stone within us, transmitting joy through the infinite sky. In Revival, she crafts a vision of springtime rebirth, where floral dresses and phoenix dreams triumph over winter’s despotism, summoning the promise of renewal. And Another Travel of the Moon invites us to taste the gods’ ambrosia in a double-moon city, where illusions and secret yearnings meet beyond the mirror.
Across five decades, Leyla has traced a singular path from the classrooms of Brussels to international literary stages, from the calligraphy of Provençal to the rhythms of Dutch and English verse. Whether speaking of a wittering rose on cold pavement or the phoenix rising from humanity’s ruins, Liza Leyla’s language is both a refuge and a challenge, a reminder that poetry, like myth, exists to awaken us to the marvel and mystery of being alive.
Raindrops
Raindrops are
Such as little tears
Merging the pearls
Of purity and hope
Tears dropping
Refreshing the dryness
of a heat wave
cosmic balm
Its tears are
Solar beams protecting
from extreme violence
Awaking in the street
unknown in the Metropolis
Lost in the dark city
It was full moon
The street was deserted
Lost in the dark city
enlightened by neon tubes
The cold wave is merciless
when the homeless is waiting
for the warmth of sunshine
A rose is wittering on the ground
Philosophical Stone
Turbulence of waves
Exuberance of the wind
We are listening to the fluttering
Of its eyelashes
Breathe of delirious joy
in the infinite universe
Crossing the starry sky
Violin of the imaginable
With the wings of joyful heart
Transmitting creative sparks
Transmitting the poetic vibrations
Of the philosophical stone
Revival
The morning sun is radiant
The pool is covered
with silvery surfaces
It is really important
to discover smiling faces
The whole nature is bathing
in hesitating happiness
leaving slowly the winter
The winter was so despotic
like a war without end
Taking away our
sublime imagination
This travel along the trees
offers us the vertigo
of hidden dreams
The forest is magic
full of pleasure
approaching
the taste of life
Our floral dresses
make sure we forget
the phobia of despair
hidden in our winter dresses
There is a call of the phoenix
for eternal return
offering the hope of rebirth
We are so surprised
to discover a peace message
in a world of decomposition
The promise of revival
is twinkling on the horizon
The sarcophagus of the mummy
reflects the call of the paradise bird
The sky is crossing the clearings
Another Travel of the Moon
The paradise bird is flying
over the deserted space
to meet the nightingale
and its wonderful song
The waves are embracing
the veil of the Meltemi
disappearing in the grace
of satisfied autumn
Looking in the mirror
reflection of illusions
It is behind this mirror
that we reveal our secret
Behind the mirror
there is another life
stretching arms
to the firmament
Our primordial desires
exit of the centuries
resisting to death
by the force of memory
The city is so empty
The city is so rich
The double moon
invites the nightingale
Liza Lyela (Belgium)
Liza Leyla is a famous poetess, translator and research worker, native of East Flanders (Belgium). She notably translated a play of Pascal Vrebos and a short story of Stendhal in Dutch, her mother tongue.
After teaching French course in some secondary schools of Flanders, she came to Brussels to study Philosophy at the V.U.B. and in 1983, she had her viva (thesis) in philosophy about the thinking of the French writer Stendhal. In 1994, she started a linguistic project, Lingua & Littera (the interaction between the spoken and written language, emphasizing the importance of intersubjectivity), rending services to universities, ministries, enterprises, private schools and private persons, continuing research work in philosophy about feminine myths.
Liza Leyla began to publish in literary journals from 1981 on.
Her poetry has been presented in Belgium, France and Spain, and published in Dutch, French, English, Spanish and Provençal. The author besides participated in international projects for peace and tolerance/dignity and in different cultural and philosophical projects. M.I. Behleem set some of her (peace) poems to music. Her tuition led to an alphabetization project in Guinea-Conakry. The author is reporter World Press (O.M.P.P., World Organization of the Periodical Press).
Publications: poetry and fantastic stories (poetic prose)
11Nostalgie chromatique”, “A travers les Appalaches”, 1992, Ed. LL
“Les Lèvres du Néant”, Ed. LL, 1993
“Les Tentacules du Moloch”, Ed. “Lingua & Littera”, 1994
“Sora” (French/Dutch), Ed. Lingua & Littera, 1995
“Rosée solaire”, 1998, Ed. LL, Brussels
«La Voie d’Eros», «Le Clin d’œil de la Sirène», 2001, Ed. LL, Brussels
«Epines satinées, Et la guerre continue», 2003, Ed. LL, Brussels
«Zachte Luimen», Free Musketeers, 2006, Woerden (The Netherlands)
«Dentelle de mirages», 2007, Ed. LL, Brussels
«Flores de Bronce», 2008, El Zaguàn, Almeria,
«Lilith en de Baai van de Wilde Geiten», Free Musketeers, 2009, (The Netherlands)
“Arrière-plan philosophique de l’œuvre de Stendhal (1783-1842), Ed. LL, 2009
“Lady Xiang Feng en de Olifantenbaai”, Ed. Free Musketeers, 2011,
“Temps d’attente aux lueurs de l’espoir”. Ed. Espaventau, Pignans (France), 2012 (translation from French into Provençal – maritime Provençal and Rhodanian Provençal),
“Poèmes de Liza Leyla”, ed. by Martine Christoff, calligrapher, 2014
“Alicia Lara en de Baai van de Cobra-Godin, Ed. Free Musketeers, 2014.
“Sun Fancies”, English version of “Zachte Luimen”, Ed. AmericaStarbooks, Maryland, 2015
“Mille et une Couleurs de l’Aube. Du Crépuscule au Paradis de Lumière, Ed. Muse, Sarrebruck, 2015,
“Crépuscule des déesses”, novel, Ed. LL, Brussels 2016.
“L’Île de la déesse Serpent”, Ed. LL, 2018
“Traces d’un amour étoilé” suivi de “La Quête”, LL-Ed., 2019
«Metropolis by Twilight», Ed. LL, 2021
“Arrière-plan philosophique de l’œuvre de Stendhal (1783-1842), LL-Edition, philosophy, 2021”
“Crépuscule à Metropolis”, novel, LL-Edition, 2021, Brussels
“Over de MInnebrieven van Heloïse en Abelard”. “De Onbaatzuchrige Liefde”, LL-Edition, the edition of Liza LEYLA, februar,2023, Brussesl,filosofical essay.
(‘La faim et la pauvreté dans le monde’”,”Honger en Armoede in de Wereld” 2006, Essay published in French and Dutch version)
Literary Translations
“Meesterlijke Misdaad”, translation of a play of Pascal Vrebos from French into Dutch, Ed. Free Musketeers, 2010,
“Huilende Duinen”, translation from French into Dutch of “Le Sablier des dunes”, written and published by Jean-Claude Deshayes, 2014.
“Mina de Wangel”, translation from French into Dutch of Stendhal’s fictive story, Ed. Free Musketeers, 2012,
NB: LL Editions, the editions by the author (Liza LEYLA)
Liza LEYLA cooperated as author and translator with the IPTRC:
“Four plus one”, “Vier plus Één”, Earth Culture Press, 2020
(Four Chinese poets and one Belgian poet)
He is the poet of a wonderful collection of poetry « Time sleeps on blooming lilies », ed. Demer Press, 2024/2025, showing us the way to unknown poetry like in his sublime poem about an « Unknown women » (p.106), a poem about beauty that keeps its mystery, creating a galaxy of 1001 hidden poetic secrets. Many thanks to Agror Shele, a famous poet who creates poetry galaxies, islands of eternal intersubjectivity.
La poésie est sublime par excellence !
Hope you like the post, dear poet