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Warsan Shire

Backwards

  • 1 Our Blue Bodies | Translations: de
  • 2 Souvenir | Translations: de
  • 3 The Ugly Daughter | Translations: de
  • 4 Midnight in the Foreign Food Aisle | Translations: de
  • 5 Nail Technician as Palm Reader | Translations: de
  • 6 Her Blue Body Full of Light | Translations: de
  • 7 The House | Translations: de
  • 8 Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre) | Translations: desv
  • 9 Backwards | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (Rückwärts)
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Backwards
For Saaid Shire

The poem can start with him walking backwards into a room.
He takes off his jacket and sits down for the rest of his life,
that’s how we bring Dad back.
I can make the blood run back up my nose, ants rushing into a hole.
We grow into smaller bodies, my breasts disappear,
your cheeks soften, teeth sink back into gums.
I can make us loved, just say the word.
Give them stumps for hands if even once they touched us without consent,
I can write the poem and make it disappear.
Step-Dad spits liquor back into glass,
Mum’s body rolls back up the stairs, the bone pops back into place,
maybe she keeps the baby.
Maybe we’re okay kid?
I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love,
you won’t be able to see beyond it.

You won’t be able to see beyond it,
I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love.
Maybe we’re okay kid,
maybe she keeps the baby.
Mum’s body rolls back up the stairs, the bone pops back into place,
Step-Dad spits liquor back into glass.
I can write the poem and make it disappear,
give them stumps for hands if even once they touched us without consent,
I can make us loved, just say the word.
Your cheeks soften, teeth sink back into gums
we grow into smaller bodies, my breasts disappear.
I can make the blood run back up my nose, ants rushing into a hole,
that’s how we bring Dad back.
He takes off his jacket and sits down for the rest of his life.
The poem can start with him walking backwards into a room.

© Warsan Shire
From: unpublished
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2015

Translations:

Language: german

Rückwärts
Für Saaid Shire

Die erste Zeile des Gedichts kann zeigen, wie er rückwärts in ein Zimmer geht.
Er zieht die Jacke aus und setzt sich für den Rest des Lebens hin,
so holen wir uns Dad zurück.
Ich kann das Blut wieder in meine Nase laufen lassen, ein Strom von Ameisen vor ihrem Bau.
Wir reifen zu kleineren Körpern, mein Busen schwindet,
deine Wangen glätten sich, die Zähne schlüpfen in das Fleisch zurück.
Ich kann uns geliebt sein lassen, sag einfach das Wort.
Ihnen Stümpfe geben anstatt Händen, falls sie uns auch nur einmal unerlaubt berührten,
ich kann das Gedicht schreiben und verschwinden lassen.
Stief-Dad spuckt den Schnaps zurück ins Glas,
Moms Körper rollt die Treppe wieder rauf, der Knochen renkt sich heil,
vielleicht muss sie das Baby nicht verlieren.
Vielleicht sind wir okay, Kiddo?
Ich schreibe dieses Leben neu und diesmal voll mit Liebe,
dass du nicht hindurchschauen kannst.

Du kannst nicht hindurchschauen,
ich schreibe dieses Leben neu und diesmal voll mit Liebe.
Vielleicht sind wir okay, Kiddo,
vielleicht muss sie das Baby nicht verlieren.
Moms Körper rollt die Treppe wieder rauf, der Knochen renkt sich heil,
Stief-Dad spuckt den Schnaps zurück ins Glas.
Ich kann das Gedicht schreiben und verschwinden lassen,
ihnen Stümpfe geben anstatt Händen, falls sie uns auch nur einmal unerlaubt berührten.
Ich kann uns geliebt sein lassen, sag einfach das Wort.
Deine Wangen glätten sich, die Zähne schlüpfen in das Fleisch zurück,
wir reifen zu kleineren Körpern, mein Busen schwindet.
Ich kann das Blut wieder in meine Nase laufen lassen, ein Strom von Ameisen vor ihrem Bau,
so holen wir uns Dad zurück.
Er zieht die Jacke aus und setzt sich für den Rest des Lebens hin.
Die erste Zeile des Gedichts kann zeigen, wie er rückwärts in ein Zimmer geht.

Aus dem Englischen von Ron Winkler
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Warsan Shire

photo © private
* 01.08.1988, Nairobi, Kenya
lives in: London, United Kingdom

Warsan Shire was born in 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents, she grew up in London, where she still lives. She won her first prize at an international slam event and is now the editor of the magazines Literary arts mashup and Spook. She leads workshops, in which poetry is used as a tool to try to overcome personal traumas.

Her poems have been published and featured in various literary publications, such as the Poetry Review, Magma and Wasafiri as well as have been  featured in the collections Book of Younger Poets (Salt, 2011) and Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe, 2014). Poems of her have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish and Estonian etc. 

 photo © private
Publications
  • Teaching my Mother How to Give Birth

    London: flipped eye, 2011

  • Our Men Do Not Belong To Us

    Prairie Schooner, 2014

  • grief has it's blue hands in my hair

    London: flipped eye, 2015

  • Her Blue Body

    Flap Pamphlet Series, 2015

Awards
  • 2013 Inaugural African Poetry Prize (Brunel University)

  • 2013 First Young Poet Laureate for London

  • 2014 Queensland (Australia’s) Poet in Residence

Links
  • Warsan Shire @ Twitter

    Website
  • 'Music Warsan Shire writes to'

    Website
  • Warsan Shire @ Bandcamp

    warsan versus melancholy (the seven stages of being lonely)

    Website
  • Warsan Shire and Beyoncé: Superheroes for Our Time

    @ Literary Hub

    Website
  • Article about Warsan Shire in The Guardian

    Website

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