{"id":290156,"date":"2012-05-02T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2012\/05\/02\/hagar-before-the-occupation-hagar-after-the-occupation-by-amal-al-jubouri-5-days-of-poetry\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T16:11:40","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T16:11:40","slug":"hagar-before-the-occupation-hagar-after-the-occupation-by-amal-al-jubouri-5-days-of-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2012\/05\/02\/hagar-before-the-occupation-hagar-after-the-occupation-by-amal-al-jubouri-5-days-of-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":""Hagar Before the Occupation \/ Hagar After the Occupation" by Amal Al-Jubouri [5 Days of Poetry]"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Best Translated Book Award announcements taking place Friday, May 4th at 6pm at McNally Jackson Books<\/b> it’s time to highlight all six poetry finalists. Over the course of the week we’ll run short pieces by all of the poetry judges on their list of finalists.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for all past and future posts in this series.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

Hagar Before the Occupation \/ Hagar After the Occupation<\/em><\/a> by Amal Al-Jubouri, translated by Rebecca Gayle Howell with Husam Qaisi<\/p>\n

Language:<\/b> Arabic
\n\u2028Country:<\/b> Iraq
\nPublisher:<\/b> Alice James Books<\/p>\n

Why This Book Should Win:<\/b> We’ve never had a winner from Iraq, or even from Arabic, and it’s about time.<\/p>\n

Today’s post is from Jennifer Kronovet.<\/em><\/p>\n

The following are some poem titles from Iraqi poet Amal Al-Junouri\u2019s fantastic book of poetry: \u201cMy Neighbor Before the Occupation,\u201d \u201cMy Neighbor After the Occupation,\u201d \u201cBones Before the Occupation,\u201d \u201cBones After the Occupation,\u201d \u201cPhotographs Before the Occupation,\u201d \u201cPhotographs After the Occupation.\u201d These titles suggest that a stark dichotomy will be illuminated, that time and war work in such a way that there is a clear before and a clear after, that the Iraq before American and British occupation is a set place distinct from a solid present. Yet, through their spoken clarity, their lyrical beauty and complexity, and their specific observational longing, the poems in this book eradicate the myth of such dichotomies. Instead, this place, Iraq, is a place of perspective, of shifting, complicated change known to us through a way of seeing that cuts through the simple. In \u201cMy Mouth Before the Occupation,\u201d Al-Junouri writes that her mouth \u201ctried to say no, but couldn\u2019t \/ I was afraid \/\/ Instead, my tongue led me to this curse: \/ protests that silenced me \/\/ then seeped from me, eternal.\u201d Then<\/p>\n

\n

My Mouth After the Occupation:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

shouts No! Fearless,
\nthough my tongue fears arrest<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

I\u2019m terrified of losing truth
\nand look\u2014it\u2019s already gone<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Exiled with God\u2019s tongues<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She doesn\u2019t say no before the occupation; she does after\u2014but still there\u2019s fear and loss, there\u2019s a way in which words still leave one behind. In Hagar Before the Occupation \/ Hagar After the Occupation<\/em>, we see how the political writes itself on everything that is personal\u2014one\u2019s speech and body, one\u2019s sense of freedom and of love. Rebecca Gayle Howell\u2019s translation, with Husam Qaisi, is stunning in how it creates a powerful, contemporary voice speaking to us directly with warmth and suffering, and yet also carries over the poems\u2019 connection to Arabic literary traditions. The language of the poems marry present and past, which is a feat of translatorly skill and innovation.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Best Translated Book Award announcements taking place Friday, May 4th at 6pm at McNally Jackson Books it’s time to highlight all six poetry finalists. Over the course of the week we’ll run short pieces by all of the poetry judges on their list of finalists. Click here for all past and future posts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[46566,46676,46646,336,45656,46636,46666,23006,31546,46656],"class_list":["post-290156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-5-days-of-poetry","tag-alice-james-books","tag-amal-al-jubouri","tag-arabic-literature","tag-btba-2012","tag-hagar-before-the-occupation-hagar-after-the-occupation","tag-husam-qaisi","tag-iraqi-literature","tag-jennifer-kronovet","tag-rebecca-gayle-howell"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341396,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290156\/revisions\/341396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}