"Load Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry From Harat, Afghanistan," edited by Farzana Marie. (Holy Cow! Press, 162 pages, $16.95.)
Poet Nadia Anjuman was the first Afghan woman to publish a book after the Taliban fell. Shortly after her triumphant debut, her husband beat her to death and spent only a month in prison for the crime.
Anjuman's story tragically demonstrates that, even post-Taliban, the position of Afghan women remains precarious. She writes, "Stifling songs is my abuser's strongest skill."
Her story opens "Load Poems Like Guns," a collection of work by eight women poets from Afghanistan's third-largest city. Editor Farzana Marie's extensive introduction and meticulous translation notes offer an overview of Afghan poetry.
Even while participating in traditional forms and tropes from Persian literature, each poet included emerges as an individual voice.
Fariba Haidari writes long surreal poems: "Miracles newly decomposing, / as the smell of gunpowder permeates / the flower beds." Elaha Sahel offers unsettling micro-poems: "Face caged, the quaking bird / discerns the owl, its omen-laden stare." Nilufar Niksear confronts violence with stark images: "At night in this empty neighborhood / the village was drowned in bullets / blood still flowed up."
This volume offers an important scholarly contribution to the study of Afghan poetry while making the startling beauty of these poems accessible to the general reader.
Reading, 3 p.m. April 12, SubText Bookstore, 165 Western Av., St. Paul.