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misspalah's review against another edition
5.0
Since it is still considered August and and i figured it's not too late for me to join Women in Translation Month (#WITMonth). I don't normally join any monthly reading challenge because i am just too fussy and picky on what i will read next. However, the book that i just finished reading coincidentally making me participate in the challenge. Dunya Mikhail wrote this collection of her poems titled the war works hard in Arabic. Like any Iraqis, she doesn't want to leave her country. However, her writing bringing an extra attention by Iraqi Fascist Authority as her themes stood out as Anti War. She fled from Iraq to Jordan and eventually, United States of America.
.
.
I don't have favorite poems from this collection of poems. The poems carried a baggage of emotion and you can sense it. The abandonment, the war cry, the injustice, the killing of civilians, the liberty of others on the expense of another lives, the landscape of her own country that she no longer recognized - All of this are somewhat rooted deeply in her poems. The titular poem 'the war works hard' is an epitome of how magnificent her writing is.
.
.
How magnificent the war is!
How eager
and efficient!
Early in the morning,
it wakes up the sirens
and dispatches ambulances
to various places,
swings corpses through the air,
rolls stretchers to the wounded,
summons rain
from the eyes of mothers,
digs into the earth
dislodging many things
from under the ruins…
Some are lifeless and glistening,
others are pale and still throbbing…
It produces the most questions
in the minds of children,
entertains the gods
by shooting fireworks and missiles
into the sky,
sows mines in the fields
and reaps punctures and blisters,
urges families to emigrate,
stands beside the clergymen
as they curse the devil
(poor devil, he remains
with one hand in the searing fire)…
The war continues working, day and night.
It inspires tyrants
to deliver long speeches,
awards medals to generals
and themes to poets.
It contributes to the industry
of artificial limbs,
provides food for flies,
adds pages to the history books,
achieves equality
between killer and killed,
teaches lovers to write letters,
accustoms young women to waiting,
fills the newspapers
with articles and pictures,
builds new houses
for the orphans,
invigorates the coffin makers,
gives grave diggers
a pat on the back
and paints a smile on the leader’s face.
The war works with unparalleled diligence!
Yet no one gives it
a word of praise.
.
.
I don't have favorite poems from this collection of poems. The poems carried a baggage of emotion and you can sense it. The abandonment, the war cry, the injustice, the killing of civilians, the liberty of others on the expense of another lives, the landscape of her own country that she no longer recognized - All of this are somewhat rooted deeply in her poems. The titular poem 'the war works hard' is an epitome of how magnificent her writing is.
.
.
How magnificent the war is!
How eager
and efficient!
Early in the morning,
it wakes up the sirens
and dispatches ambulances
to various places,
swings corpses through the air,
rolls stretchers to the wounded,
summons rain
from the eyes of mothers,
digs into the earth
dislodging many things
from under the ruins…
Some are lifeless and glistening,
others are pale and still throbbing…
It produces the most questions
in the minds of children,
entertains the gods
by shooting fireworks and missiles
into the sky,
sows mines in the fields
and reaps punctures and blisters,
urges families to emigrate,
stands beside the clergymen
as they curse the devil
(poor devil, he remains
with one hand in the searing fire)…
The war continues working, day and night.
It inspires tyrants
to deliver long speeches,
awards medals to generals
and themes to poets.
It contributes to the industry
of artificial limbs,
provides food for flies,
adds pages to the history books,
achieves equality
between killer and killed,
teaches lovers to write letters,
accustoms young women to waiting,
fills the newspapers
with articles and pictures,
builds new houses
for the orphans,
invigorates the coffin makers,
gives grave diggers
a pat on the back
and paints a smile on the leader’s face.
The war works with unparalleled diligence!
Yet no one gives it
a word of praise.
eb_rivers's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Very emotional yet simple poems of the effects of war in the Middle East and the lives of immigrants
hannahandthewolf's review against another edition
4.0
"Yesterday I lost a country.
I was in a hurry,
and didn't notice when it fell from me
like a broken branch from a forgetful tree."
This little book found its way into my hands because of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. One of the challenges is to read a translated book of poems. While I decided not to use this one to satisfy that particular list item (I have a beautiful translation of some Pablo Neruda poems I'm planning to read later this year), I decided Dunya Mikhail was someone I ought to read.
As an undergraduate, I studied Arabic language. How I ended up in Arabic is a rather convoluted and boring story, but once I entered the program, I knew it was going to change my life. Sadly, due to disuse, I only have a very basic proficiency in Arabic, but the professors at JMU left an indelible mark on my heart. So when my mom, an accomplished poet herself and a 30+ year veteran of teaching poetry, handed me this collection, I knew I needed to read it.
Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi poet who is fluent in Arabic, Aramaic (the ancient language of Iraqi Christians like herself), and English. The poems in this collection were written from 1985-2004. Mikhail was forced to emigrate in 1995 after coming under surveillance by Saddam Hussein's government for her work Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea, so half of these poems were written in Iraq, while the second half she wrote while living in the United States as a refugee.
The collection itself is profound. Her poetry, as Saadi Simawe notes in the introduction, is childlike in its perspective and simplicity at times, yet devastating and unflinching. These lines from her poem "Santa Claus" offer an excellent example: "I replied: But the Santa Claus I know / wears a military uniform, / and each year he distributes / red swords, / dolls for orphans, / artificial limbs, / and photos of the missing / to be hung on walls." Mikhail does not shy away from any subject material. She writes poignantly about subjects ranging from rape to the pregnant guard at Abu Graib Prison.
Her most powerful poems say the least and have a personal and accusatory voice, yet the collection has a global and tender feel. Mikhail walks an incredibly delicate line whereby you are vividly aware of how close these events are to her own personal experience, and yet there is a universality to them that draws even the farthest removed reader deep into the fray. The collection is short (like most books of this kind), but should be read slowly, over the course of several days. I found myself unable to continue halfway through, even though I'd only been reading for half an hour. There was so much packed into so few words, my mind needed an opportunity to fathom them out before battling on.
The only reason I give this collection a 4/5 is something I'm not sure it can help. In it being a translation (and there being no biographical information on or a statement from the translator Elizabeth Winslow), I felt cut off from something vital. The introduction and the poems tell me so much about Dunya Mikhail, and there is almost nothing about Winslow. Saadi Simawe notes in her introductory essay "the translated work...is the product of two creative minds," but I cannot know Winslow's mind, and thus cannot gauge the level of her contribution to the poems. How literal was she? What were her priorities in translating? What did she strive to preserve and defend, and what did she feel justified in changing?
Overall, however, this collection, now more than a decade old, is worth revisiting. In light of our new administration's attempts to ignite fear and hatred against our brown brothers and sisters, Dunya Mikhail offers us a bridge. She shows us the intimate fears and trials of the refugees we are denying safe haven, and through that, we are forced to see their humanity.
Read more book reviews like this one at http://hannahandthewolf.wordpress.com
I was in a hurry,
and didn't notice when it fell from me
like a broken branch from a forgetful tree."
This little book found its way into my hands because of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. One of the challenges is to read a translated book of poems. While I decided not to use this one to satisfy that particular list item (I have a beautiful translation of some Pablo Neruda poems I'm planning to read later this year), I decided Dunya Mikhail was someone I ought to read.
As an undergraduate, I studied Arabic language. How I ended up in Arabic is a rather convoluted and boring story, but once I entered the program, I knew it was going to change my life. Sadly, due to disuse, I only have a very basic proficiency in Arabic, but the professors at JMU left an indelible mark on my heart. So when my mom, an accomplished poet herself and a 30+ year veteran of teaching poetry, handed me this collection, I knew I needed to read it.
Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi poet who is fluent in Arabic, Aramaic (the ancient language of Iraqi Christians like herself), and English. The poems in this collection were written from 1985-2004. Mikhail was forced to emigrate in 1995 after coming under surveillance by Saddam Hussein's government for her work Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea, so half of these poems were written in Iraq, while the second half she wrote while living in the United States as a refugee.
The collection itself is profound. Her poetry, as Saadi Simawe notes in the introduction, is childlike in its perspective and simplicity at times, yet devastating and unflinching. These lines from her poem "Santa Claus" offer an excellent example: "I replied: But the Santa Claus I know / wears a military uniform, / and each year he distributes / red swords, / dolls for orphans, / artificial limbs, / and photos of the missing / to be hung on walls." Mikhail does not shy away from any subject material. She writes poignantly about subjects ranging from rape to the pregnant guard at Abu Graib Prison.
Her most powerful poems say the least and have a personal and accusatory voice, yet the collection has a global and tender feel. Mikhail walks an incredibly delicate line whereby you are vividly aware of how close these events are to her own personal experience, and yet there is a universality to them that draws even the farthest removed reader deep into the fray. The collection is short (like most books of this kind), but should be read slowly, over the course of several days. I found myself unable to continue halfway through, even though I'd only been reading for half an hour. There was so much packed into so few words, my mind needed an opportunity to fathom them out before battling on.
The only reason I give this collection a 4/5 is something I'm not sure it can help. In it being a translation (and there being no biographical information on or a statement from the translator Elizabeth Winslow), I felt cut off from something vital. The introduction and the poems tell me so much about Dunya Mikhail, and there is almost nothing about Winslow. Saadi Simawe notes in her introductory essay "the translated work...is the product of two creative minds," but I cannot know Winslow's mind, and thus cannot gauge the level of her contribution to the poems. How literal was she? What were her priorities in translating? What did she strive to preserve and defend, and what did she feel justified in changing?
Overall, however, this collection, now more than a decade old, is worth revisiting. In light of our new administration's attempts to ignite fear and hatred against our brown brothers and sisters, Dunya Mikhail offers us a bridge. She shows us the intimate fears and trials of the refugees we are denying safe haven, and through that, we are forced to see their humanity.
Read more book reviews like this one at http://hannahandthewolf.wordpress.com
luke_beaty's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
pardonmywritings's review against another edition
4.0
Absolutely heartbreaking pieces of poetry highlighting the traumatic side effects to civil war.
memawls's review against another edition
4.0
Her poetry is lyrical, honest and raw. A fantastic collection focusing on people affected by war.
stefanieh's review
5.0
Powerful poems about love and war and the horrible things humans do to one another
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