Algerian poet Zeinab Laouedj was born in 1954, in Maghnia (Tlemcen). She writes in Arabic and is translated in French (all be it seldom). I have not found her translated in English.
The latest French translation of her work I've found is in this collection of texts by Algerian writers and poets called Paroles d'Algériens : Ecrire pour résister dans l'Algerie du XXè Siècle (2003).
In the above collection, you can find her poem 'Le Palmier' [The Palm Tree] dedicated to Abdelkader Alloua, the Algerian playwright assassinated on 10 March 1994, and to the poet Youcef Sebti assassinated on 27 December 1993:
"Mon pays
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My country
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Je suis un Lion
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I am a Lion
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Et je vous ferai trembler
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And I will make you tremble
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Jusque dans vos forêts
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Up til your forests
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Moi le Fou
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Me, the Crazed
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Fou par amour de sa patrie
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Mad for the love of his land
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Où nul fou
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Where no other madman
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Ne me ressemble
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Resembles me
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Ma
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My
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Stature
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Stature
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Est grande
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Stands tall
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Votre
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Your
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Tombe
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Grave
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Ne peut
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Cannot
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La contenir ...
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Contain it…
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La terre tourne
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The earth turns
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Même allongé
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Even lying
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Je
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I
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Suis
|
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Dressé
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Rise
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Tel
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Like
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Un
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A
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Palmier
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Palmtree
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Dans
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In
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L'humus
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The soil
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De la terre."
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Of the earth.
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Zineb
Laouedj
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(Eng. trans. by Nadia Ghanem)
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Zeinab Laouedj is married to Algerian novelist Waciny Laredj. If you are in Algiers, you can find her poetry collections in the Librairie du Tiers-Monde (at the very bottom of the "Algerian Lit in Arabic" section, at the very back of the "poetry in Algerian" section , above the dust).
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