Wonderful, inspirational words
Someone once said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but Tuesday night’s poetry readings at the Scottish Poetry Library set a serious challenge to that claim.
An enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience were enthralled by three refugee poets (and one Scot) reading extracts from their work as part of Refugee Week Scotland events. Under the banner of ‘Lines of Flight, Iyad Hayatleh from Palestine, Kusay Hussain from Iraq, Carlos Arrendondo from Chile and Sue Reid Sexton treated us to their poetic reflections on life as a refugee in Arabic, Spanish and English and what reflections they were, ranging from personal feelings on leaving their home lands to the often very political ‘take’ on the causes of their respective exiles.
Passion and pain translates
It struck me that the challenges of writing in a foreign language (English) would dilute the emotional impact of the creative form, but the passion and pain of their circumstances still came through to an audience who for the most part had no command of Arabic or Spanish, although the differences in rhythm, cadence and phrasing were clear to see and hear. Those issues and many others were explored with the audience during the interesting Q & A.
The reasons behind the words
Carlos, who I had met and heard previously, was his usual expressive self during the Question and Answers session after the readings, waxing lyrical about the traditions of poetry in his native Chile while Iyad explained that his motivation in writing was to “raise the level of freedom” from the oppression that forced him into exile and continued to demonise the Palestinian people in their own land. Kusay was very clear that his writing was an effort to “empty his head” of all the feelings he had been forced to suppress in his native Iraq. His collaboration with Sue ensured that his work and experiences was translated into English for a wider audience.
Lines of Flight is an innovative and interesting insight into the inspirations and experiences of refugees, which give rise poetry of refugee artists and was well worth seeing.
