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FOETRY PARhIASSUS

EDITED BY
NEII ASTLEY & ANNA SELBY

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 POETRY PARNASSUS

Taking inspiration from Mount parnassus in Greece, one of

poetry's spiritual and mythical heartlands, poetry parnassus
echoes the Epinicians -
poetry commissioned as part of the
ancient Olympic Games. It also builds on Southbank Cenffe,s
biannual Poetry International Festival, inaugurated in 1967 by
Ted Hughes. Part of Festival of the World with MasterCard,
Poetry Parnassus is one of the projects made possible with
additional support from Southbank Centre,s key funder Arts
Council England. It is part of the London Z0l2 Festival, a
spectacular l2-week nationwide celebration running from 2l
June until 9 September 2012 bringing together Ieading artists
from across the wodd with the very best from the UK. The
London 2012 Festival is the finale of the Cultural Olympiad, a
four-year programme of cultural events which began in 200g.
Poetry Parnassus was developed by Southbank Centre,s
Artistic Director Jude Kelly with curator Simon Armitage,
and organised by Literature and Spoken Word Coordinator
Anna Selby supported by Southbank Centre,s literature team.
 Copynsht of poems and translations rests with authors, translators
and other rights holders as cited in the acknowledgements on pages
?8G356, which constiture an extension of this copyright page.

ISBN: 978 I 85224 938 0

First published 2012 by

Bloodaxe Books Ltd,
Highgreen,
Tarset,
Northumberland NE48 lRp
in association with
Southbank Centre,
Belvedere Road,
London SEI 8XX.

www.bloodaxebooks.com
For further information about Bloodaxe titles
please visit our website or write to
the above address for a catalogue.

:brooo: II ARTscoUNcIt
Supported by

.rn,o"' I ENGTAND

LEGAL NOTICE
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or
by any. means, electronic, mechanical, photocopylng,
recording or otherwise, without prior *,ritten pirmission
from the copyright holders listed on pages 2gL3S6.
Bloodax-e Books Ltd only conrrols publication rights to
poems from its own publications and does zaf control
rights to most of the poems published in this anthology.

Cover design: Neil Astley & pamela Robertson-pearce.

Printed in Great Britain by

Bell & Bain Limited, Glasgow, Scotland.
 CONTENTS

Simon Arrnitage l5 Introduction

Anna Selby 18 Preface

AFGHANISTAN
Reza Mohammad,i 23 Rain
ALBANIA
Luljeta Lleshanaku 24 No Time
ALGERIA.
Soleiman Adel Guinar 25 Eyes closed
ANDORRA
Ester Fenoll Garcia 27 Between your fingers...
ANGOLA
Ana Paula TaoareS '28 'Bitter as Fruit
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
Linisa George 29 The Brown Girl in the Ring
ARGENTINA
'
Mirta Rosenberg 31 Intimate Bestiary
ARMENIA
Razmik Datso.yan 32 Yessenin
ARUBA
Lasana M. Sekou 34 We Continue
AUSTRAI,IA
John Kinsella 36 The Ambassadors
AUSTRIA
Etselyn Schlag 38 Lesson
AZERBAIJAN
Nigar Hasan-Zadeh 39 'I knocked at someone's door...'
THE BAHAMAS
Chistian Carnpbell 40 Vertigo
BAHRAIN
Qassirn Hadd.ad. 4t' Poets
BANGLADESH
tlllir Mahfuz Ali 42 My Salma
BARBADOS
*{!
Esther Phillips 44 Near-Distance
sulanuS
tma Mort 45 Belarus I
BELGIUM
Moors 46 'I am the gardener with an alibi...'
 Eoan X HYde 47 About Poems
BENIN
Agnis Agboton 48 'They remain lying on the earth"''
BERMUDA
Andra Simonr 49 Week of the Dog
BHUTAN
Sonam Chhoki 50 New Year dusk
BOLIVIA

Maria Soledad Quiroga 50 The Yellow House

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Adisa Baiii 5l PeoPle Talking

BOTSWANA

Tl Dena 53 Neon Poem

BRAZIL

Paulo Henriques Britto 55 Qrasi Sonnet

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
AnonYntous 55 'A twist of hair'"'
BULGARIA
Kapba Kassobo'sa 56 How to Build Your Dream Garden
BURKINA FASO
Monique llboud,o 57 I suffer
BURUNDI

Keny Nioyabandi Bikura 58 Three tribes

CAMBODIA

Kosal Khiezt 60 WhY I Write

CAMEROON

Paul Dakeyo 62 'So we will emerge from exile"''

CANADA

Karen Solie 63 Migration

CAPE VERDE

Corsino Fortes 64 Emigrant

CAYMAN ISLANDS

Nasaria Suckoo Chollette 67 Just Long Celia

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Anonymous 69 2 Termite Skyscrapers
CHAD
Nimrod, 70 The crY of the bird
CHILE
Alejand,ra del Rio 7l In Jan Neruda's Tavern
CHINA
Yang Lian 72 from What Water Confirms
CHINESE TAIPEI (TAIWAN)

Chen Li 73 Nocturnal Fish

 COLOMBIA
Rail.l Henao 74 Emptiness
COMOROS

Salim Hatubou 75 And So

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE
Alain Mabanckou 76 'there is nothing worse...'
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Kama Sywor Kamand,a 77 The Song of Resistance
COOK ISLANDS

Aud,rey Brown-Pereiro 78 The Trilogy of Two (2) Halves

COSTA RICA

Ano Istardt 81 Bringing to Light

COTE D,IVOIRE
Tanella Boni 83 from Gor6e baobab island
CROATIA

Damir Sod,an 83 Kamchatka

CUBA

Ped.ro Pirez Sarduy 84 The Poet

CYPRUS

Christodoulos Mabris 90 The lmpressionists

CZECH REPUBLIC

Sylaa Fischerood:, 91 Eggs,-Newspaper and Coffee

DENMARK
Pia TafdruP 93 The Whales in Paris
DJIBOUTI
Abdourahman A. Waberi 94 Desire
DOMINICA
Daniel Caud,eiron 94 Words for an ExPatriate
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Chiqui Vicioso 95 The Fish Swam
F,CUADOR

Santiago Vizcaino 97 from Hands in the Grave

EGYPT
Iman Mersal 99 Amina
EI. SALVADOR
Claribel Alegria 100 Flowers from the Volcano
EqUATORIAL GUINEA
Rccaredo Silebo Botoru 102 Tragedy
ERITREA

Ribka Sibhatu 104 Mother Africa

ESTONIA
Kristiina Ehin 105 How to explain my language to you
ETHIOPIA
koketu SeYoum 106 Elegy
 rrt{rENG
-C*pe Diem
ifl. GIBoN
'lIO Sun
THE GAMBIA
'Klw ll0 Men and Fame
GEORGIA
Sariilroili ltl Let my husband know
GERMANY
:,,.tan lVagner l12 a horse
GHANA
'' NiiAyihoeiParhes ll3 MenLikeMe
GREAT BRITAIN
Jo Shapcon ll4 phrase Book
GREECE
Katerina lliopoalou I 16 Tainaron
GRENADA
Maureen Roberts l17 A Farewell Song
GUAM
Craig Santos Perez lZ0 fron preterrain
GUATEMALA
Carmen Matute l2l The Fig,s proposal
GUINEA
Kounamanthio Zeinab l2Z Hymn to the brave peasanr women
Diallo of Africa
GUINEA-BISSAU
Vasco Cabral lZ3 Last Adieus of a Forest_Fighter
GUYANA
John Agard 124 Half_caste
HAITI
Eztelyn Trouillot l2S please
HONDURAS
Mayra Oyuela 126 Mistress of the house
HONG KONG
Jennifer l(ong 127 Glimpse
HUNGARY
ignes Lehdczhy 128 Nircisz,s telephone call in
leapmouth
i ICELAND
Gerdur Kristnj, 129, patriotic poem
 INDIA
Tishani Doshi 130 The Adulterous Citizen
INDONESIA
Lahsmi Pamuntjak l3l A Traveller's Tale
IRAN
Mimi Khaloati 133 Don't Ask Me, Love,
for that First Love
IRAq
Saadi Youssef 134 Occupation 1943
IRELAND
Seamus Heaney 135 The Underground
ITALY
Anat Zecharya 136 A Woman of Valour
ISRAEL
Elisa Baigini 137 from The Guest
JAMAICA
Kei Miller 140 Your dance is like a cure
JAPAN
Ryoho Sekiguchi l4l fron Adagio ma non troppo
JORDAN
Amjad Nasser 143 The Phases of the Moon in London
KAZAKHSTAN
Akerke Mussabekooa 144 Remember me
KENYA
Shailja Patel 145 Eater of Death
KIRIBATI
Teresia Teaiwa 150 Pacific Tsunami Found Poems
NORTH KOREA
Jang jin Seong 152 I Sell My Daughter for 100 Won
SOUTH KOREA
Kim Hyesoon 153 Red Scissors Woman
KUWAIT
Saadia Mffirreh 154 Distance
KYRGYZSTAN
Rozo Mukasheoa 155 Nomad in the sunset
LAOS
Bryon Thao Worra 156 No Regrets
LATVIA
Karlis Vdrd,ipi 157 Come to Me
LEBANON
l/irus Khoury-Gata 158 Widow
LESOTHO
Rahabile Masilo 159 The San's Promise
 LlBERIA
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley 160 The Women in My Family
LIBYA
Khaled Matta,pa 161 Tongue
-Borrowed
LIECHTENSTEIN
Elisabeth Kaufmann-Biichel 162 Free as a Bird
LITHUANIA
Donatas Petroiius 163 Ghost Dogs; Way of the Samurai
LUXEMBOURG
Anise Kohz 164 Prologue
MACEDONIA
Nikola Mad,zirot; 165 Shadows Pass Us By
MADAGASCAR
Modeste Hugues 166 Lavitra (Far Away)
MALAWI

Jack Mapanje 166 Scrubbing the Furious Walls of Mikuyu

MALAYSIA
Sharanya Manioannan 168 Dreaming of Burying My Grandmother
Who Has No Grave
MALDIVES
Farah Didi 169 winds of change
MALI
Oxmo Puccino 170 'This is a song...'
MALTA
Immanuel Mifsud, l7l froru A Handful of Leaves from Mallorca
MARSHALL ISLANDS
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner 172 history project
MAURITANIA
Mbarka Mint al-Barra' 175 Message from a Martyr
MAURITIUS
Sarad,ha Soobrayen 176 My Conqueror
MEXICO
Rocio Cerdn 178 fron America
MICRONESIA
Emelihter Kihleng 179 This morning at Joy
MOLDOVA
Vasile Gdrnel 180 Bookmark 1t;
MONACO
Georges Franzi 180 Many People Say...
MONGOLIA
Hadaa Sendoo l8l It Is Not True I Have No Hometown
MONTENEGRO
Aleksand,ar Beianonit 182 Pessoa: On Four Addresses
 MOROCCO
Hassan El Ouazzani 183 What If I Unsettled the Homeland?
MOZAMBIqUE
Ano Mafalda Leite 187 Music Box
MYANMAR (BURMA)
Zeyar Lynn 188 Slide Show
NAMIBIA
Moula ya Nangolo 190 From Exile
NAURU
Makerita Va'ai 19l Rains of Nauru
NEPAL
Yuyutsu R.D. Sharmo 192 London Bombings
NETHERLANDS
Arjen Duinker 194 from The Sublime Song of a Maybe
NEW ZEALAND
Bill Manhire 195 Entering America
NICARAGUA
Gioconda Belli 196 Brief Lessons in Eroticism I
NIGER
Adarnou ldi 198 I'm Scared
NIGERIA
Wole Soyinka 199 Her Joy is Wild
NORWAY
End.re Ruset 200 Plum tree
OMAN
Zahir Al-Ghafri 201 A Room at the End of the World
PAKISTAN
Irntiaz Dharker 202 Honour killing
PALAU
Anonymous 203 The Bungle-man
PALESTINE
Rafeef Ziad,ah 204 We Teach Life, Sir
PANAMA
Lucy Cristina Chau 206 The Night
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Steoen Winduo 207 Lomo'ha I am, in Spirits' Voice I Call
PARAGUAY
Lia Colombino 208 from The Side
PERU
yktotio Gaerrero Peirano 209 The Cyclist
PHILIPPINES
Marjorie Eoasco 2ll Despedida
POLAND
Jaceh Dehnel 212 The Death of Oscar Wilde
 PORTUGAL
Rosa Alice Branco 213 No Complaint Book
PUERTO RICO
Vanessa Dross 214 The Absent Warrior
qATAR
Soad Al Kuwari 215 The Flood
ROMANIA
Doina loanid. 217 The Yellow Dog
RUSSIA
Ilya Kaminsky 217 Author's PraYer
RWANDA
Ed.ouard, Bamporiki 218 from A Cock Crows in Rwanda
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS
Ishaq lrnruh Bakari 221 Haiti is once again...
SAINT LUCIA
Derek Walcott 224 Ls John to Patmos
ST VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
Philip Nanton 225 Douglas'Dinky Death
SAMOA
Tusiata Aaia 226 Return to Paradise
AMERICAN SAMOA
Sia Figiel 227 The Daffodils from
a Native's Perspective
SAN MARINO
Milena Ercolani 229 A Woman Is a Woman
sAo roME eNo PniucIPB
ConceiEdo Lima 230 Cataclysm and Songs
SAUDI ARABIA
Ashjan Al Hendi 231 In Search of the Other
SENEGAL
Did,ier Awad.i 232 In My Dream
SERBIA
Ana Ristoaii 234 Circling Zero
SEYCHELLES
Antoine Abel 236 Your CountrY
SIERRA LEONE
Syl Cheney-Coker 236 On the 50th Anniversary
of Amnesty International
SINGAPORE
Ahtin Pang 238 When the barbarians arrive
SLOVAKIA
Katarina Kucbeload 239 from Little Big City
SLOVENIA
Taja Kramberger 242 Every dead one has a name
 SOLOMON ISLANDS

Jufut Makini 244 Praying Parents

SOMALIA
Abdullahi Botaan Hassan 245 Central London
SOUTH AFRICA
Katharine Kilalea 247 You were a bird
SPAIN
Eli Tolaretxipi 248 from Still Life with Loops
SRI LANKA
Minoli Salgad,o 249 Patriot Games
SUDAN
Al-Sadd,iq Al-Raddi 250 Nothing
SURINAME

Jh Narain 251 Working all day, dreaming at night

SWAZILAND
Msandi Kababa 252 Nayibamba Bophezu Kwemkhono
(Hard Working Women)
SWEDEN
Laura Wihlborg 253 Google Search Results
SWITZERLAND
Valeria Melchioretto 254 The Suitcase
SYRIA
Rasha Omron 255 Ophelia, As I Want To Be
TAJIKISTAN
Farzaneh Khojand,i 257 Behind the Mass of Green
TANZANIA
Haji Gora Haji 258 Wonders
THAILAND
Chiranan Pitpreecha 259 The defiance of a flower
TIMOR-LESTE
Xanana Gusmdo 260 Grandfather Crocodile
TOGO

Jimima Fiadjoe-Prince 261 Thank You for Being a Woman

Agbod,jan
TONGA
Karla Mila 262 Oceania
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Anthony Jowph 264 Btddha
TUNISIA
Arnina Said 266 'Each day...'
TURKEY
Roni Margulies 267 Roni Margulies
TURKMENISTAN
Ak Welsapar 268 The Night Dropped the Stars
from the Sky
 TUVALU
Selina Tusitalo Marsh 269 Googling Tusitala
UGANDA
Nicb Makoha 270 Who do they say I aml
UKRAINE
Serhiy Zhadon 271 The Sell-out Poets of the 60s
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Dhabiya Kharnis 273 The History of That Tree
URUGUAY
Melisa Machado 275 Marjal
USA
Kay Ryan 277 Flamingo Watching
UZBEKISTAN
Hamid Ismailozt 278 Garden
VANUATU
Grace Mera Molisa 278 Delightful Acquiescence
VENEZUELA
Beoerly Pirez Rego 280 Garden
VIETNAM
Nguyen Bao Chan 281 Memory
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
Oren Hodge 282 Sharks in Sharp Suits
US VIRGIN ISLANDS
Patricia Harkins-Pierre 282 Post Hurrican Open Letter to
the Author of 'Easter Wings'
YEMEN
Nabila Azzubair 283 The Closed Game
ZAMBIA
Kayo Chingonyi 283 calling a spade a spade
ZIMBABWE
Togara Muzanenharno 284 Smoke

287 Norns & ACKNowLEDGEMENTS

357 rNoox oF PoETs
 INTRODUCTION

For the three years leading up to the summer of 2012 I worked as a

visiting Artist in Residence at London's Southbank Centre, quite
possibly the world's largest arts complex, whose characterless, concrete
exterior hides classic design features from the 50s and 60s and innum-
erable artistic endeavours. Conceived at the time of the Festival of
Britain as a kind of people's palace, the Southbank Centre was said by
some to have lost its identity and direction over subsequent decades.
But following a recent physical remodelling and a reappraisal of its
outlook under Artistic Director Jude Kelly, the Southbank Centre
feels to have recommitted to ideals of participation, celebration and
integration, and its dizzying daily programming - incorporating every-
thing from classical music to graffiti art - bears witness to the scope
and ambition of its creative thinking. Most importantly there's an
open door policy, a democratic feel to the place, as if its caf6s, bars,
dance-floors, workstations, thoroughfares and public spaces had evolved
into an informal hub for the wider artistic community. I once described
poets as the tramps of literature, something I feel more keenly when
I'm in London than anywhere else in Britain. But at the Southbank
Centre a poet can sit, think and compose while enjoying uninterrupted
views of Eliot's Thames and Wordsworth's Westminster Bridge and
Blake's 'charter'd streets' without attracting the attention of security
personnel. It's also home to the Saison Poetry Library, a national
treasure house of books and other poetic resources, open to all and
free of charge.
Responding to this environment and atmosphere, and with the
monolith of the Olympic Stadium being slowly assembled just a few
miles downstream, I proposed the idea, two years ago, of a global
gathering of poets to coincide with Olympic year - a poet from every
Olympic country, under one roof. Mount Parnassus would be our
inspiration, sacred haunt of the god Apollo, spiritual home of the
muses and "first poet" Orpheus, and for a week we would aim to re-
create the footslopes of that mountain along the shore of the river and
among the many rooms, foyers and auditoria belonging to the Centre.
Lasted year, boosted by a public appeal for suggestions, we started
to identify poets from 204 Olympic countries (the number seemed to
ran- week by week as nations emerged, merged, disappeared, boycotted
the Games etc) whose work excited us and whose presence we hoped
s-ould bring energy and integrity to this curated project, some decidedly
Iiterarl-, others from storytelling, oral or performing traditions, some

l5
world famous, others barely known outside their own borders (and
some hardly known within them either). It probably goes without
saying that this proved to be a colossal administrative and organisational
task. Obtaining visa status for so many visitors was a particular head-
ache at a time when factions within Britain's insecure coalition govern-
ment were making loud and not particularly welcoming noises about
immigration and refugees. In some senses, that kind of negativity and
obstruction made it all the more important to press ahead and succeed.
In more anxious moments I did worry that we were creating an utterly
unmanageable nightmare scenario, an amalgamation of the Tower of
Babel and the Eurovision Song Contest. But I also clung to the idea
that Poetry Parnassus could be unique, not iust in its size and ambition,
but in its attitude and ideology. In its daring, in fact. Building on the
Southbank Centre's Poetry International Festival, inaugurated in the
60s by Ted Hughes amongst others, and with a nod in the direction
the landmark and legendary 1965 Albert Hall event which went down
in history as 'the Poetry Olympics', Parnassus developed into a week of
readings, translation, conferencing, workshops, discussion, argument,
and all things poetic.
As well as spectacular headline-grabbing events such as the Rain
of Poems (100,000 poems dropped from a helicopter onto Jubilee
Gardens) and gala readings involving Nobel Laureates, the programme
includes more intimate or specialised events, reflecting the range of
poetic voices at work in the world today and recognising the varying
forms and approaches that poetry might take. And this anthology will
be available in two other formats: The lMorld, Record., a single handmade
book consisting of handwritten poems by poets of every nation to be
kept in the Saison Poetry Library, and a multilingual e-book including
the handwritten pages with the English texts or translations.
London, it seemed to me, was always going to be the perfect city
for such an unprecedented coming together, being home to communities
of people from every corner of the globe, offering the possibility of
connecting those communities with poets of their own tongue and
background, and generating new readerships and audiences beyond
the usual literary crowd. The timing also seemed especially apt. k's
possible that every generation since the beginning of time feels to have
lived through momentous historical circumstances, and if that is the
case, then our own age has been no less momentous, with conflicts
raging across Africa and the Middle East, religions at loggerheads,
economic recession in the west, the prospect of nuclear proliferation,
the continuing devastation of the natural world and the spectre of
climate change overshadowing the entire planet. A good time, as ever,

l6
for poetry to maintain its bearings, assert its validity, and to speak its
mind. In an era of so much fragmentation and delineation, Poetry
Parnassus seeksto overcome barriers, ignore borders, and promote
the convergence of peoples of every nationality through a shared
interest and a common thread.
Poetry, we're told, was part of the original Olympics, and quite
possibly an actual event. But in contrast with the great political and
financial behemoth into which the modern Olympics has morphed,
Pamassus was conceived as non-commercial, non-corporate and
decidedly (at least in terms of medals or "winning") non-competitive
happening. Possibly even something of an anti-Olympics; if we were
to have found a line of poetry to summarise Parnassus and draped it
around the inside of the Royal Festival Hall, I'm sure it would have
been quite different in tone and spirit to Tennyson's, 'To strive, to
seek, to find, and not to yield', the phrase engraved at the heart of the
Ollmpic village as an inspiration to athletes. Poets have always been
signed up members of the awkward squad, dissenters from the norm
and the expected, and poetry has always been a practice under pressure.
Its intensity of language and thought has made it the art form of con-
c€ntration, which on some very elemental level means it isn't for every-
bod-r*, especially when other modes of mental stimulation are so readily
and casually available. In terms of popularity it cannot and would not
seek to compete with the immediacy of prose, or the ubiquity of the
risual image, or the passive engagement of the electronic media.
-{s poets we are few, and sometimes it feels like a siege. But poetry
h existed from the very beginning and has proved itself to be remarkably
durable and highly adaptive, even if it hasn't changed much over the
course of human history. In the beginning it was intense' compact
hnguage, spoken or chanted or sung, then eventually written down,
rnd several thousand years later it's still pretty much the same thing.
This anthology, comprising work from the poets of 204 countries, seems
to oonfirm the theory that poetry is a naturally occurring function of all
hnguages, and is alive and well in the world. As if it were an anthro-
pological inevitability, all cultures seem to have developed some form
of charged and shaped expression, one which goes beyond the basic
giring of information or acts of everyday communication. Other than
,ter. it's impossible to generalise about the style, character and subject-
tD.tter of rvhat lies between these covers; please enjoy it for its wild
r':rrietr-, as a global snapshot of poets and poetry in the early days of
fie 2lst century, and as record of a most exceptional happening.

Sf,\IO\.{R\IITAGE

t7