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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