Full Description
My Heart Became a Bomb is the first collection of poetry by Syrian-Palestinian poet Ramy al-Asheq to be translated into English. Poignant and raw, these poems take the reader along a path of forced emigration from Bashar al-Assad's prisons in Syria to Amsterdam to Auschwitz to Berlin, Germany, where Al-Asheq is now creating a new home. By turns melancholy and reflective, celebratory and hopeful, Al-Asheq's newly translated poems offer the English-reading audience a contemporary perspective on the experience of exile in a world facing the phenomeno of mass migration, whether for political or environmental reasons. The translations are the result of a long collaboration between Al-Asheq and Thompson (who also edited this collection). Raising questions about the nature of love, identity, and the role of poetry in the face of constant flux and great uncertainty, My Heart Became a Bomb introduces an important new voice to the world of contemporary poetry.
Contents
Introduction
From Within
No One Noticed When You Died
Three Attempts to Say I Love You
At War
The War Is Lucky
Fatma Carries Two Wounds In One Hand
In the Sea's Playground
Pictures From Exile
I Will Not Die
Where Did We Come From?
Ahmad's Drowned Shadow
They Seem Like People
Fireworks
Escape
Just As Death Is Born Without Love
So We Left Damascus
The Disappointment Of a Smile
The Miserable Land Of Acre
The Dance
Inability
What Dark
