Woman of Mint by Fatena Al-Gharra
Featuring: Fatena Al-Gharra, Sarah Maguire, Sara Vaghefian
This week's podcast contains the poem 'Woman of Mint' by Fatena Al-Gharra, with a literal translation by Sara Vaghefian and a poetic translation by Sarah Maguire, the founder of the PTC.
Revealing the differences that make this poem special to her, Sarah Maguire writes in her notes on the poem:
'Poetry in English is filled with poems that use plants to articulate gender. By and large, it's men poets who continually compare women to fragile, delicate flowers ... It's fascinating to witness a woman poet writing in Arabic using a 'feminine' mint plant and a 'masculine' nettle to express her feelings about gender.'
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