LITERATURE OF ENEMIES OF THE US
Written and Compiled by Dick Bennett, February 21, 2013.
CONTENTS
Forum Announcement
LTE Announcement
Latest Program Agenda
The Three Anthologies, Dedicated to the Writers and the Translators
Poetry of the Taliban
The Translators and Editors
“Preface” by Devji
Editors’ “Introduction”
Further Thematic Comments
Literature from the “Axis of Evil”. . .And Other Enemy Nations
Editors’ Note
The Writers: Iran , Iraq , NK, Syria , Libya , Sudan , Cuba
BOOK FORUM
LITERATURE OF US
(See OMNI’s web site for notes on the anthologies: http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/)
WHO IS BEING BOMBED, DISPLACED, KILLED?
WHO ARE THEY, WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? HOW DIVERSE ARE THEY? HOW TRUE THE LABELS OF WAR?
WHEN: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013, 7 p.m.
WHERE: OMNI CENTER
Dick Bennett, Coordinator
THE PANEL:
Jacob George: Alex Strick Van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, eds. Poetry of the Taliban. Columbia UP, 2012. Jacob has also composed and will sing a song based upon one of the poems.
Kaveh Bassiri: Forbidden: Poems from Iran
Sholeh Wolpé, who also translated many of the poems.
Sholeh Wolpé, who also translated many of the poems.
Taymour Elkerim. Reading a poem by a Syrian author.
Dick Bennett: Literature of the “Axis of Evil” (and other “enemies”), World without Borders Anthology.
Let us cheer the authors, the editors, and the translators.
Bios of Panelists:
Jacob George: Veteran soldier of US occupation of Afghanistan ; founder of the anti-war bicycling organization, A Ride Till the End (ARTTE).; musician, song-writer. a.ride.till.the.end@gmail.com
Kaveh Bassiri: Iranian-American poet and translator, also teaches Persian literature and film courses at University of Arkansas
Taymour Elkerim. Former political prisoner and now refugee from Syria
Dick Bennett: Emeritus professor of English, UA; co-founder of OMNI; compiler of Peace Movement Directory, Control of Information in the US , and Control of Media in the US
Dick’s Letter to the Editor
Terrah Baker, Editor
During the Vietnam War I was a professor in UAF’s English Department. Even as the years of the war mounted (two years, eight years, ten years!) the university failed to respond to the killing and devastation—a million people subjected to bombs, napalm, and agent orange, their villages burned and leaders assassinated, and more millions displaced in a dubiously legal war. Of course a university cannot shift its curriculum to meet emergencies, but such a long war could have provided at least one course on Vietnamese history, politics, or literature.
Now the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq have caused twelve years and ten years of more killing. But this time the university is better prepared. With Arts and Sciences named for J. William Fulbright, the Middle Eastern Studies with a variety of courses and a film series, a translation program, other international activities, and high-level emphasis upon internationalism and diversity, UAF is better positioned to help its students examine their nation’s wars and the idea of an “enemy nation” in real time. Its course offerings include Iranian literature several semesters, South Asian history and sociology, Vietnam history and culture, and Syrian literature this semester.
In this thoughtful context, OMNI has organized a Book Forum on the Literature of US “Enemies.” Please come and join the conversation: Friday, February 22, 7 p.m., at OMNI. The panelists—Jacob George, Kaveh Bassiri, and Dick Bennett—will discuss anthologies of Poetry of the Taliban, Literature of the “Axis of Evil,” and Poems from Iran
References:
US WAR AGAINST VIETNAM
Christopher, Renny. The Vietnam War / The American War: Images and Representations in Euro-American and Vietnamese Exile Narratives. U of Mass. P, 1995.
Rottmann, Larry. Voices from the Ho Chi Minh Trail: Poetry of America and Vietnam
History
Turse, Nick. Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. Macmillan, 2012.
US WAR AGAINST AFGHANISTAN
Alex Strick Van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, eds. Poetry of the Taliban. Columbia UP, 2012
US WAR AGAINST THE “AXIS OF EVIL”
Words Without Borders. Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran , Iraq , North Korea
Wolpe, Sholeh, ed. Forbidden: Poems fromIran
Wolpe, Sholeh, ed. Forbidden: Poems from
Related anthologies:
Reza Aslan, ed. Tablet and Pen. Middle Eastern literature.
FINAL AGENDA
Intro.: Dick Bennett
Taliban Poetry and Jacob’s Song: Jacob George
Iranian Literature: Kaveh Bassiri
Syrian Literature, A Reading
Axis of Evil Literature: Dick
Audience
DICK’S NOTES ON THE THREE ANTHOLOGIES
POETRY OF THE TALIBAN
From the Oxford
Pronunciation: /ˈtalɪban/
(also Taleban)
Definition of Taliban
· a fundamentalist Muslim movement whose militia took control of much of Afghanistan from early 1995, and in 1996 took Kabul
from Persian ṭālibān, plural of ṭālib 'student, seeker of knowledge', from Arabic (so named because the movement reputedly began amongst Afghani students exiled in Pakistan
Derivatives: Talibanization (also Talibanisation) noun, Talibanize (also Talibanise) verb.
(The editors explain various synonyms denoting those fighting for or affiliated with “the Taliban.” “Mujahed” is a person who does jihad.” A similar term is “Ghazi.” Other words are “trench friend,” “brother,” “Afghan.”—Dick)
THE TRANSLATORS
Although Rahmany is only 30 in 2013, while Stanikzai must be around 40, Both are experienced. Rahmany taught English a few years, and Stanikzai has translated many kinds of writings between English, Pashto, and Dari.
THE EDITORS
Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn.
They have worked together on many projects. In 2006 they founded AfghanWire, an online research and media-monitoring group to give voice to local Afghan media. In 2010 they co-edited My Life with the Taliban. In 2012 they published An Enemy We Created, a history of the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda relationship.
In 2012 at Kings College London Linschoten was working on a book and Ph.D. on the identity of the Afghan Taliban movement 1978-2001. He speaks Arabic, Pashtu, and German.
THE POEMS
The editors divided the poems into six topics: 1. Before September 11, 2. Love & Pastoral, 3. Religious, 4. Discontent, 5. The Trench, 6. The Human Cost.
The book includes a useful Glossary, Notes, and Bibliography.
THE “PREFACE” BY FAISAL DEVJI.
Devji has taught at the several of the best universities in the UK
The future of Afghanistan and Taliban poetry: “Now that coalition forces are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan
Taliban poetry: Although the Taliban (plural of Talib) “are invariably defined in terms of tribal regulation and religious law. . . .surely it is the human element” of their “prolific culture of versification, that goes some way towards accounting for the Taliban’s self-consciousness, to say nothing about their resilience and appeal. For this body of verse is part of a greater world of poetic production in which Afghans belonging to every shade of political opinion participate.” (11-12) The Taliban are represented in the West and in “much of the Muslim world, too, for their strict conservatism,” but their poetry is “replete” with the “feelings of humanity.” “Drawing upon the long tradition of Persian or Urdu verse as much as Afghan legend and recent history, it is an aesthetic form that includes unrequited love, powerful women. . , and descriptions of natural beauty among its themes.” (12). Additional topics discussed by Devji: Afghan attempts to humanize the many wars, their links to aesthetic traditions, the ancient Pashtun culture, the heroes and heroines of Afghan history from the medieval period to the present, its Pashtun Afghan content (“a resolutely Pashtun land for the Taliban poet” 21), the enemy (see my notes below), the ambiguity and multi-layered complexity of the verse, their historical consciousness, and more. Devji’s essay provides a highly positive appreciation of the content and verse of the poems. (See my notes on themes, following.) Anyone reading his essay will no longer be able to accept the US
LINSCHOTEN’S AND KUEHN’S “INTRODUCTION” 29-48.
Everything Devji argues and illustrates is confirmed by the editors’ excellent commentary. But first, what is “Taliban poetry”? It’s the poems and songs published on the Taliban’s website, which the editors monitored, and the additional poems and songs collected by the editors online, orally, or on cassettes. Of these, the editors have selected 235 poems “to showcase some of the diversity of thematic and stylistic content as well as offering three dozen older examples from the 1980s and 1990s,” all part of a ancient, broader tradition of Pashtun and Farsicultural heritage and poetry. Here are other key arguments.
In Section one:
We cannot understand “the Taliban” and see through the hostile US/NATO stereotypes without the poetry.
The Taliban possess a vision, which is partly expressed by the poetry. (See my note on “hope” below.)
Poetry is “part of the lifeblood of social intercourse” in Pashtun/Afghan culture. The poetic culture derives from the Qur’an, which is written in rhymed prose and is recited in schools. “Every Thursday evening, poets around the country meet in groups” to recite their works and discuss.
Section 2 on Music is a close analysis of the important role of music, the music selected for censorship, the differences among officials, some more censorious than others, the subterfuges by artists found in all authoritarian countries, the continuation of the censorship after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Section 3: Taliban authors, singers, audience, business of the arts, poetic traditions. Section 4 on themes (43-) discusses “Taliban” references, the international enemies, prisons (Guantanamo
DICK’S COMPLEMENTARY NOTES ON TALIBAN POETRY THEMES in Sections 5 and 6 about the wars.
Many of these poems are worthy works of art that enrich their political statements, but his is thematic not stylistic commentary.
PATRIOTIC VICTORY OVER ALL INVADERS AND OCCUPIERS
Section 5, “The Trench,”, in particular collects poems of war and resistance violence and Afghan heroism. One poem gives a snapshot of 200 years of resistance to foreign occupation, “Islam’s Heroes” by Hanif. “This is the soil of Islam; it has well-trained heroes;/ This is why they would have beaten the enemy on any ground/. . . .The English are a great example of those who have been pushed out. . . .[Afghans] brought shame to the name of Communism. . . ./they have beaten a power like Bush.”
Like Hanif, Turabwrites in “Warning” about the occupiers who wrongfully intruded into Afghanistan
In “Home of Heroes” by Abedzai the invaders expelled go back to the Christian Crusaders, the British, to the Soviets, even to their own war lords, and now US/NATO. “The unbelievers have always been defeated on your soil.”
Victory over the USA
Additional war poems briefly noted:
“A Mujahed’s Wish From [to?] His Mother” p. 138
A resistance poem. The writer/persona is going to war against the foreign invader and occupier, and he sends his “last will” to his father and mother. In addition to personal courage and honor and pride in his “homeland,” the poet also asserts his faith in Allah and his family: family, country, God.
“Goodby” 138
Similar. Telling his mother he must go fight against the “English” who have “occupied my home” and played with “our dignity and chastity.” The editors explain that English” is shorthand for all the foreign invaders—Soviet , US
“I Am an Afghan Mujahed” 138
Also about going to battle, and revealing his basic values, who he is, “I am” repeated, an identity poem:
1) Foremost he is an Afghan Mujahed, repeated several times, ready to martyr himself for his homeland. He identifies with the history of Afghan resistance to invaders.
2) He has “my religion,” faith, “holy Qur’an,” Shari’a “my light.”
3) He seeks “free life,” freedom from foreign occupation, and justice and stability.
4) He and all Afghans hate war, but they will fight against invaders, “Oh cruel colonizer!” I am an Afghan mujahed!
“Hero” 139
Another identity poem, with “I am” assertions throughout.
“I am Afghan.”
“History attests that I am a hero.”
Yet merciful.
But not to the cruel
And he will not “accept enslavement.”
Personal within national historical pride pervades this and preceding poems.
Note: “Freedom” is a major value to these poets—freedom from conquest and occupation by foreigners. Ironically, US leaders partly rationalized the illegal, ill-prepared, ignorant, immoral invasion by claiming to be benefactors—bringing freedom to the Afghans! Read more below.
GRIEF OVER THE DESECRATION AND DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMELAND
The 6th and final topical groupings of the poems is “The Human Cost.”
Abdul Basir Watanyar in “I live in flames” laments the invasion and destruction of Afghanistan
FREEDOM
Maybe the most unexpected and striking theme by its unintended irony is that of freedom. In the name of “freedom” the US invades, occupies, bombs, shoots, displaces and in general creates immense calamity and grief in Afghanistan US
“This Country Will Be Freed” (authornot given) is a key expression of Afghan resistance to foreign domination. The first stanza declares why freedom is certain: because the mujahed/ghazis (Islamic warriors) are fighting for their freedom; because every home is a “fortress,” together providing an army; because the enemy invaders are guilty of turning Afghanistan, the very earth, “into the Day of Judgement”; and because Afghans dream of a “flood” of justice by which the cruel and criminal will be punished and the oppressed freed and happy. The final two stanzas evoke the great liberation poets from Blake to Ginzberg, except the freedom is “for the nation”: “Everyone will break their chains and every captive’s hand will be freed;/In order to gain independence for the nation.” The freedom for which they fight and kill, and die, is for their country and their place in their homeland. “My dear homeland is burning,” writes Shin Gul Aajiz in “Homeland,”“Its soil and deserts are destroyed,” its people are leaving, and he appeals to “my creator” to protect the homeland from the plotters “against our freedom.” (But see Devji 14 on the “thoroughly individual sense of freedom” in some poems.)
Dick Bennett 2-19-13
LITERATURE FROM THE “AXIS OF EVIL”: Writing from Iran , Iraq , North Korea , and other Enemy Nations (Syria , Libya , Sudan , Cuba
EDITORS’ NOTE (xiii-xxi)
They begin by pointing out the importance of translation to international understanding and the paucity of translation in both the US and in the Arab world, compared to Western Europe . They also reveal one cause of translation deficiency in the US in the past was US restrictions on publishing “enemy” literature, particularly that of embargoed nations, through licensing by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The US Soviet Union : SU/US?
They follow by skewering US use of “axis of evil” rhetoric. Its harms cut deep and wide. “The ‘Axis of Evil’ is an abstraction that obliterates both the very real differences between the included countries, which are not even remotely in alliance with each other, and the distinctiveness of the individuals who live in them. The devastation wrought by the ‘axis of evil’ rhetoric and thinking behind it, from Abu Ghraib to the deaths and maiming of so many thousands of people, military and civilian, and the deaths and maiming yet to come from cancer and other illnesses related to depleted uranium from American ‘smart’ weaponry—this is now glaringly clear.”
Against these harms they ask “Is the ‘enemy’ a particular leader, or a more pervasive ideology? A system of government, a people, a social group?” They hope their book “might simply celebrate diverse works of literature and through them, provide fresh perspectives on the notion of the ‘enemy nation.’ “ (xvi). Through the literature of nations threatened by the US or attacked and occupied, US leaders and public might become able to make a life-giving “war on ignorance” instead of the global, seemingly permanent, lethal “war on terrorism.”
Underlying this belief is the assurance that understanding of others is the preeminent purpose and achievement of literature. (xvii). Literature enables us to see the real individuals living in the nation and its ideologies, to participate in lives around the globe. Our leaders and mainstream media give us abstractions of good and bad nations, when we must experience real people, unique individuals, like people living in the towns and an the farms of our own nation in all their diversity, if we are to decide whether to invade and bomb. The editors recognize too the importance of international education in general—classes on the cultures of other nations, world literature translated and written in English, study abroad, exchange programs, multiculturalism. Thus we will widen our “circles of reference. . . against ignorance and fear of the ‘enemy.’”
Finally, they acknowledge the difficulty of selecting literature from seven nations, particularly from those nations prolific with writers, such as Iran
THE ANTHOLOGY
The literature is arranged in this order: Iran , Iraq , North Korea , Syria , Libya , Sudan , Cuba Syria
The Introduction by Najem Wali describes the plight of writers living in a dictatorship destroyed by wars (one with Iran
All of the five Iraqi writers represented in the anthology are exiles. Here are three of them.
Salah Al-Hamdani writing in French, in his poem “Baghdad My Beloved” (2003) of the bitter sorrows of exile, oppression, and war. He lives in France
Sherko Fatah, writing in German, depicts life under war in his prize-winning novel, At the Borderline. The excerpt recounts two experiences of a smuggler at the border—crossing a minefield and dealing with border guards. Fatah lives in Germany
The excerpt from Scattered Crumbs, a novel by Huhsin Al-Ramli, set in an Iraqi village during the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, presents the men of a family creatively—zanily, insanely--trying to evade military service. The author lives in Spain
From the Persian Empire to Nuclear Conflict
The author of the introduction to the Iran literature, Zara Houshmand, helpfully distinguishes between Iran and the rest of the Middle East ; for example, it was once the center of the largest empire in world history, known for its toleration and the first bill of rights, and the origin of the Zoroastrian religion. It is a center of Shiite Islam, to which 90 percent of Iranians adhere, and a century of strong central government. Yet “there is substantial diversity.” In 1954, the elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq, who was strengthening democracy and nationalizing the mainly British oil industry, was overthrown in a CIA-led coup and the oil divided between Iran Iraq US
Nation of Poets
Hafez, Rumi, Sa’adi, Kayyam from the eleventh to the fourteenth century—these creative icons, and many others, enlighten Iranian culture. “Their poetry is very much alive today, recited and loved by Iranians at all levels of society” and extending into “Afghanistan , Pakistan , and India Iran , Houshmand has chosen “three very different voices”: a poem by Ahmad Shamlou, “a monumental and revered presence”; Houshang Moradi-Kermani, the “most translated modern Iranian author” with numerous international awards; and Tirdad Zolghadr, who writes about connections between Teheran and Europe .
The selection from A Little Less Conversation, Zolghadr creates an astonishingly international, witty, cynical character named Golmohamad whose mind is a dozen cultures simultaneously in a similar Teheran. A politically striking passage is a favorable comparison of Khomeini’s regime to that of the more systematically brutal Shah. But after reading about North Koreans who had lived in Japan
THE FORBIDDEN: POEMS FROM IRAN Iran Iran
The four authors are given almost the same number of pages as for the Iraqi writers. None of them are in exile. All were published by official magazines or state-run publishing companies and following official guidelines particularly regarding respectful treatment of the Great Leader. Biographical information was not available for some of the writers. So I was surprised by this judgment by the author of the NK introduction: “Nevertheless, what we witness on these pages is the persistent power of the written word, of the willingness to deliver, despite all obstacles, the stories of lives in North Korea
The judgment is true. One story—by Kang Kwi-mi—tells a story about a displaced, poor Korean family living in Japan Korea , because discrimination against Koreans was severe in Japan North Korea (where their home was located), and a musical career was assured for both boys--until the US “spy ship, the Pueblo ,” was captured and the US US
The story is literature or merely a political pamphlet written for advancement and to avoid punishment? Either way, it should be a wake-up call to the US North Korea US US US devastated the North during the Korean War, and some US North Korea US invasions of Iraq
This wretched history continues today. Watch the newspapers. On Feb. 15, 2016, the ADG copied an editorial from the Chicago Tribune reporting “Another Nuclear Tantrum” by NK; that is, a nuclear test. The fear-mongering CT/ADG speculated “ominously” that the test was perhaps to develop “a warhead small enough to fit atop a long-range missile and threaten the United States China Pueblo
Threat after threat. On Feb. 16, in the ADG the AP reported “House: Get Tough on North Korea Pyongyang China
Hanadi Al-Samman’s introduction explains the close connections, as in other Arab countries, between literature and politics. Ottoman empire’s “harsh censorship” forced many writers into exile mainly to the US and Egypt France ’s occupation of Syria Israel Israel
The editors of the anthology selected one novel to excerpt, by Salim Barakat, and a story by Hanna Mina. The story “On the Sacks” (1976) tells about his Syrian-Arab boyhood in Turkey with his mother and sisters, his friends working as what we call child labor, the tyrannical boss of the business, and more—a familiar turn to the past in a dictatorship.
For world writers and their translators
Dick Bennett 2-21-13