Justin C McIntosh has given his permission for his photograph above to be used for the cover of a long Turkish poem by Cahit Koytak, now published as a book with an English translation alongside. I am proud to have been one of the translators.
The original Turkish poem is called Gazze Risalesi. In English we have made that title… continue reading
Category Gaza
Despatches to my Gazan Son
The Inn this Advent
Photograph by Robert Atanasoski/AFP/Getty Images.
Expulsion
I heard this song tonight from the desert
the shelters below ground there
and the wrecked homes
and I heard it from the grey waters
just south of Europe, with winter coming on
and the boat leaking
and from the guard posts and barbed frontiers
that now cover a continent, halting the raw feet… continue reading
Despatches to my Gazan Son
At the end of last year I translated into English a long poem by the distinguished Turkish poet Cahit Koytak. In Turkish, the poem is called “Gazze Risalesi.” It was written in 2008, but could just as easily have been composed last Summer, during the Israeli bombings which took place then, too. It seems that not much has changed in… continue reading