Makhali-Phâl

Nelly-Pierrette Guesde (1908 – November 15, 1965), best known by her pen name Makhali-Phâl, was a French Cambodian poet and novelist.

Biography Nelly-Pierrette Guesde was born in 1908 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, although by some accounts her birth year was 1898. She was the daughter of a Cambodian mother, Néang Mali, and a father who was a member of the French colonial administration, Pierre Mathieu Théodore Guesde. In her early childhood she received a Buddhist education, but her father then placed her in a convent, as he wanted to give her a Catholic education. At age seven, she left Cambodia to live in France, in Pau, with her paternal grandmother and grandfather, who by at least one account was the writer Jules Guesde. With the publication of her first two books of poetry, she gained recognition for both the formal quality of her writing and for establishing a dialogue between her two cultures, French and Cambodian, combining French symbolist literature with Khmer cultural tradition. She sought out a readership in both Europe and Asia.

A 1940 article in the journal L'Echo annamite paid homage to Makhali-Phâl's writing on her Buddhist and Khmer culture: "Cambodge is a short poem in three parts. But it is enough to mark Makhali-Phâl as the greatest Buddhist poet of our day. ... The Khmer people, who have been silent for millennia, have suddenly found this child with a prophetic voice to tell the world of her miracle and her first faith."

Her first novel, La Favorite de dix ans, received positive critical reception for dealing with encounters between her different cultures; it was translated into English in 1942 as The Young Concubine, gaining a significant readership in the United States.

Despite her early success, Makhali-Phâl's later novels sold poorly. Her final two books, L'Asie en flammes and L'Égyptienne, were published posthumously.

Selected works Cambodge, 1933 Chant de paix, 1937 La Favorite de dix ans, 1940 Narayana, ou Celui qui se meut sur les eaux, 1942 Le Festin des vautours, 1946 Le Roi d'Angkor, 1952 Le Feu et l'amour, 1953 Mémoires de Cléopâtre, 1956 L'Asie en flammes, 1965 L'Égyptienne: moi, Cléopâtre reine, 1979