Monday, 4 May 2020

Last homework - May - Refugee poetry

Share a poem on the situation of refugees (or relatable to it) and discuss it in the post (tip: foregroud and analyze the passages that strike you most).

3 comments:

  1. Hanna IJsselstein Mulder5 May 2020 at 08:39

    My tongue is divided into two
    BY QUIQUE AVILÉS
    My tongue is divided into two
    by virtue, coincidence or heaven
    words jumping out of my mouth
    stepping on each other
    enjoying being a voice for the message
    expecting conclusions

    My tongue is divided into two
    into heavy accent bits of confusion
    into miracles and accidents
    saying things that hurt the heart
    drowning in a language that lives, jumps, translates

    My tongue is divided by nature
    by our crazy desire to triumph and conquer

    This tongue is cut up into equal pieces
    one wants to curse and sing out loud
    the other one simply wants to ask for water

    My tongue is divided into two
    one side likes to party
    the other one takes refuge in praying

    tongue
    english of the funny sounds
    tongue
    funny sounds in english
    tongue
    sounds funny in english
    tongue
    in funny english sounds

    My tongue sometimes acts like two
    and it goes crazy
    not knowing which side should be speaking
    which side translating

    My tongue is divided into two
    a border patrol runs through the middle
    frisking words
    asking for proper identification
    checking for pronunciation

    My tongue is divided into two
    My tongue is divided into two

    I like my tongue
    it says what feels right
    I like my tongue
    it says what feels right

    This poem by Quique Avilés is about refugees finding their voice literally and figuratively. The first because they often can’t speak the language or understand the culture of the new country they flee to. The latter because a lot of the time refugees are illegal and they don’t have the rights yet and the voice to claim them. This poem tells us this idea by the tongue split in two. The conflict between the language and culture from home country with the language and culture from the new country, their new (temporary) home.

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  2. No search, no rescue
    By Jehan Bseiso

    To the families and lovers at the bottom of the sea, trying to reach Europe.

    I.
    How do we overcome war and poverty only to drown in your sea?

    II.
    Misrata, Libya
    Habeebi just take the boat.
    In front of you : Bahr.
    Behind you : Harb.
    And the border, closed.
    Your Sea, Mare,Bahr. Our war, our Harb.

    III.
    Augusta, Italy
    Where is the interpreter?
    This is my family.
    Baba, mama, baby all washed up on the shore. This is 28 shoeless survivors and thousands of bodies.
    Bodies Syrian, Bodies Somali, Bodies Afghan, Bodies Ethiopian, Bodies Eritrean.
    Bodies Palestinian.
    Your Sea, Mare,Bahr. Our war, our Harb.

    IV.
    Alexandria, Egypt
    Habeebi, just take the boat.
    Behind you Aleppo and Asmara, barrel bombs and Kalashnikovs.
    In front of you a little bit of hope.
    Your Sea, Mare,Bahr. Our war, our Harb.

    V.
    Maps on our backs.
    Long way from home.


    The way this poem approaches how war refugees run away from their own country only to end up scarred by the number of suffering and death is very interesting. There’s also the fact that on the third stanza, we can assume the refugees are challenged by a new language, a new land and, unfortunately, probably the death of loved ones between the thousands of bodies present.
    However, even after all this, the fourth stanza shows how hope for a new life overcomes the fear of what could happen – because the opportunity for a better future is worth more than suffering a lifetime of “barrel bombs and Kalashnikovs”.

    Joana Pereira, 152077

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  3. I would like to share with you the poem "Explaining Depression to a Refugee" by Muna Abdulahi.

    I couldn't find a transcription of the poem, but you can watch the live performance on Youtube (https://youtu.be/eAE1Cf6YupU) or if you just prefer to listen to the audio, there is the track of her performance on this website (https://store.buttonpoetry.com/track/explaining-depression-to-a-refugee)

    After a little digging, I found out that Muna is a famous American poet, whose parents are Somalian refugees. Her poem exposes how refugees reject the concept of depression because they consider it as a “white privilege” they cannot afford, and how it affects their children (e.g. Muna).

    “Explaining Depression to a Refugee” is first fascinating because of its structure: it is fragmented from the number 1 to 20 and sounds like a story one would tell. The imageries she uses not only refers to her parent’s struggles, but it also depicts how the weight of her parents’past and of cultural differences and expectations impact the mental health of refugees’ children in a negative way.

    I would like to point out a recurrent theme in the poem: “running”

    “4: She says[…]there is nothing mental about surviving. Just running, and running, and running – and trying to not have your children witness the sound of a bullet going through flesh before they witness the holy sound a vowel can make before it turns into a word that eventually becomes a language – and running, and running, and running. Sir, we would like a new doctor for my daughter, my daughter is not depressed”

    “9: I wonder if he realizes he just told a woman who sacrificed everything to the bone to protect her children from war, of a fight she cannot protect me from – a fight she cannot help me flee from, run from, sacrifice from – I wonder if he realizes what that would do to her”

    “14: I wonder if today is the day my mother realizes, although she could stop running when she got to the US, my generation – the Somali diaspora – is still running, stuck in between two cultures, trying to uplift both expectations”

    “15: We are still running. I am still running – just not from guns”

    “20: I – WE would like to have a new doctor … and bandages for my splinters … from running”

    I found the way she uses the concept of running to transit from the war her parents were escaping from to the mental war she is trying to avoid for their sake brilliant. But really, what stroke me in Muna’s poem is her performance itself: the way she conveys her experience through a quivering voice – it sounds like she is about to yield to stress or to anger: we can feel her burdens and sufferance through her voice.

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