http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI1DsRSYw8E
Hear Taslima Nasreen read her translations of her original poems, "You Go Girl" and "A Letter to My Mother." I did not expect the ending in the first poem. It was a thunderbolt. And the second one, an autobiographical one, was a melancholy tribute to her mother who died of cancer. Taslima Nasreen, exiled from her country, Bangladesh, was living for a while in Sweden and then in India. She writes that she is a poet, a woman, without land, religion, or family. She finds solace among like-minded people of any background. Writing is her companion.
We can react with anger at Taslima's poems because of their militant tone, or we can feel the urgency for us to be more compassionate human beings and treat each other with respect and dignity. Think about it: Why should a country feel so threatened by someone's poems as to exile them? When I look at the fate of poets who are exiled by their governments, it is then that I realize the power poetry has to change repressive policies.
Hear Taslima Nasreen read her translations of her original poems, "You Go Girl" and "A Letter to My Mother." I did not expect the ending in the first poem. It was a thunderbolt. And the second one, an autobiographical one, was a melancholy tribute to her mother who died of cancer. Taslima Nasreen, exiled from her country, Bangladesh, was living for a while in Sweden and then in India. She writes that she is a poet, a woman, without land, religion, or family. She finds solace among like-minded people of any background. Writing is her companion.
We can react with anger at Taslima's poems because of their militant tone, or we can feel the urgency for us to be more compassionate human beings and treat each other with respect and dignity. Think about it: Why should a country feel so threatened by someone's poems as to exile them? When I look at the fate of poets who are exiled by their governments, it is then that I realize the power poetry has to change repressive policies.
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