edited and translated from the Persian by Farzana Marie (Afghanistan, Holy Cow! Press)

This collection, subtitled 糖心传媒淲omen糖心传媒檚 Poetry from Herat Afghanistan,糖心传媒� bears moving witness to the extraordinary impact both poetry and translation糖心传媒攗sually seen as minor, or marginal pursuits糖心传媒攊s able to have on both our intellectual and emotional lives. In her introduction, powerhouse translator Farzana Marie explains that 糖心传媒減oetry holds an exceedingly revered place in the consciousness of the people of Afghanistan,糖心传媒� its orality lending it endurance in a country where so much else has been repeatedly destroyed. Her tight editorial focus makes this anthology as effective as a single-poet collection; poems by eight young women from Herat, an ancient city near the border with Iran, all written post-2001 (in other words, post Taliban). The feeling is one of an intimate circle, especially as the latter seven are in some sense disciples of Nadia Anjuman, the poet whose work opens the collection and who was widely seen as the city糖心传媒檚 leading literary light until her untimely death, a victim of domestic violence.

Two things about this book blew me away糖心传媒攐ne was the strength of the writing itself, and another was the astonishing work of its translator, whose time in Afghanistan has been spent volunteering at orphanages, on active duty in the US Air Force, and as a scholar of Persian literature. Crucially, though, Farzana Marie is also a poet in her own right, and an extremely gifted one, with the literary sensibility needed to carry off the tricky task of making poetry which relies heavily on strict forms like the ghazal and end rhymes come alive in English, substituting internal and slant rhymes to retain the music of the original (these translations beg to be read aloud). Here, in one of Nadia Anjuman糖心传媒檚 most famous poems, rhythm, line-breaks and vowel sounds combine to produce an effect both heady and heavy, the long 糖心传媒渦糖心传媒� at the end dulling the poem into a soporific stupor, similar to the way that earlier repeated 糖心传媒渇ull糖心传媒� hung alone like a weight or a stopper, bringing any hint of exuberance up short.

Smoke-bloom

I糖心传媒檓 full of the feeling of emptiness,
full.
An abundant famine
boils me in my soul糖心传媒檚 fevered fields,
and this strange waterless boiling
startles the image in my poem
to life.
I watch the new-living picture,
a peerless rose
blush across the page!
But barely has she first breathed
when streaks of smoke begin
to obscure her face and fumes
consume her perfumed skin.

Sadly, I wasn糖心传媒檛 able to interview Farzana herself as she糖心传媒檚 currently recuperating from a stroke (and fundraising to pay for treatment), but her publisher Jim Perlman, at the wonderfully-named Holy Cow! Press, found time to answer a couple of questions.

How did you come to publish the book?

a.) We first became aware of Farzana Marie (her birth name is Felisa Hervey) in 2012 when we accepted her poem 糖心传媒淏e-long-ing糖心传媒� for an anthology we were putting together called The Heart of All That Is: Reflections on Home. In her bio notes, Farzana wrote that she was currently studying for a Ph.D. in Persian Literature at the University of Arizona. In the winter of 13/14, wanting to escape the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota, I planned a two-week visit to Tucson where I have extended family. I decided to contact Farzana and set up a meeting. We met for lunch, and during our conversation, she mentioned that she糖心传媒檇 translated a collection of contemporary poetry by Afghan women and was looking for a publisher. Soon after returning to Minnesota, I received a copy of that same manuscript. Although Holy Cow! are known primarily for writing by midwest regional American authors, I felt that Load Poems was a powerfully unique and historically important book. So, we went for it.

How does it feel to be longlisted?

b.) We糖心传媒檙e overjoyed that Load Poems has been selected for the BTBA糖心传媒攖he nomination confirms for us the wisdom of taking this bold step in publishing Farzana糖心传媒檚 ground breaking collection, and it will definitely encourage us to seek out other translations to add to our list.

For those who are interested, here糖心传媒檚 a clip from the reading tour for this collection: