The Grass Is Like Me

Notes

As Sascha Akhtar, our guest translator explained, Kishwar Naheed is an extremely influential figure in Pakistani poetry. Naheed is a feminist poet who, for many, as the personal figure who most emphatically defies the patriarchal iniquities that exist in her society. This poem, suggested by the poet herself, is, we were told, characteristic in many ways. It is politically engaged and direct, impassioned and uncompromising, yet uses very simple colloquial language throughout. As we translated it, we tried to maintain this directness of expression as well as the irony (‘If you ask me, you had the right idea’) and metaphorical extremes.

Edward Doegar, Commissioning Editor