from White Blight
My father said: To those who have more will be given
and from those who lack even more will be taken
My mother said: Take some more milk before it turns
My father said: To those who have more will be given
and from those who lack even more will be taken
My mother said: Take some more milk before it turns
My mother said: Wouldn’t it be strange to feel
a single night like this one
my language in your mouth
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My father said: One spoonful for the executioners
one spoonful for the emancipators
one spoonful for the hungry masses
And one spoonful for me
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My mother handed the glass to her mother and said: now we are even
Here is the milk back
My grandmother said: Your mother descends from the rising sun
She was named after the bud of a flower since she was born in spring
Your mother named you after a warrior to prepare you for winter
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My grandmother said: During spring in Marghacho mint grew along the streams
Does the poem you are writing reveal any of this
My grandmother said: You snot-nosed little mutt
Come here and I’ll take your measurements and knit you a wool sweater
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My mother said: If we meet again we will pretend we did not know each other
when you were hungry and it was I who carried the milk
My brother said: Black milk of dawn, we drink you at night
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My brother said: The past is an assault never to be completed
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My mother said: Write like this
For my opportunities my mother sacrificed everything
I must be worthy of her
everything I write will be true
My grandmother said: Write like this
Mothers and languages resemble each other
in that they incessantly lie about everything
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My mother said: All families have their stories
but for them to emerge demands someone
with a particular will to disfigure
My mother said: You distort the injury with your unfortunate lie
There is a muteness that cannot be translated
My brother said: There is always something imperfect that remains inescapable
There is always something incomplete missing
Athena Farrokhzad is a poet, literary critic, translator, playwright, and teacher of creative writing at Biskops Arnö Författarskola. White Blight (Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2013) is her first volume of poetry, and it is being translated into a number of different languages, including Danish, Norwegian, Romanian, Spanish, Arabic, as well as staged as a play at the Swedish Radio and Unga Klara Theatres in Stockholm.
Poet, translator, and visual artist Jennifer Hayashida was born in Oakland, CA, and grew up in the suburbs of Stockholm and San Francisco. She completed her M.F.A. in poetry from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. She is the recipient of awards from, among others, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York Foundation for the Arts, PEN, the Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony.
