Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
Fortune Teller Out of sheer desperationI went to the fortune tellerand begged her to tell me when the war would end.Her lips curled.What did that mean?I felt my own lips beginning to curl as well, unwittingly.She looked me straight in the eye.Maybe she doesn’t know, I said to myself.Can she […]
Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey, OR Books, New York and London, 2023 Poetry for the Many is a remarkable publication by two prominent British socialists, Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey, whose public roles might not immediately suggest a foray into poetry. Corbyn and McCluskey are both well-known for their political […]
Aiséirí / Resurrection is an anti-war poem, in Irish and English, in response to a painting of the same title by Hermann Stenner who was only 23 when he was killed during the First World War. Translated by Gabriel Rosenstock Resurrection Will they rise from the dead the casualties of […]
Newslessness is a bilingual poem in Irish and English by Gabriel Rosenstock, in response to a work of art by the influential German artist Hans Haacke. Hans Haacke, News, 1969 (Fair Use) Newslessness What a day! a day like any other day a day full of news but unlike the previous […]
George Gordon Lord Byron was born in London on 22 January 1788. In 1794, he inherited the title Baron Byron on the death of his great uncle, and was titled Lord Byron in 1798. He attended Harrow and went on to study at Cambridge in 1805. Here he published his […]
Má fhaighimse bás, ní mór duitse fanacht beo chun mo scéalsa a insint mo chuid giuirléidí a dhíol ruainne éadaigh a cheannach agus cúpla téad, (bíodh sé bán ags ruball fada air) chun go mbeadh radharc ag páiste, áit éigin i nGaza agus é ag stánadh ar neamh ag feitheamh […]
If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in […]
1 Often and copiously honour has been doneTo Comrade Lenin. There are busts and statues. Cities are called after him, and children. Speeches are made in many languagesThere are meetings and demonstrationsFrom Shanghai to Chicago in Lenin’s honour. But this is how he was honoured byThe carpet weavers of Kuyan-BulakA […]
A bilingual poem inspired by Nie Wieder Krieg (Never Again War) by Karl Wiener Nie Wieder Krieg (c. 1928) UKRAINE wooden crosses over gravesbeginning to look like daggerssunk with a squelch into the earthto quieten the undeadbut undead and quivering they are notthey are truly deadempire masters of the eastempire […]
“In the dark timesWill there also be singing?Yes, there will also be singing.About the dark times”—Bertolt BrechtThe night is darkI see light across the skyIt is not a light of hopeIt is not the sign of dawnThe heat it radiates does not give warmthIt scorches you to ashesThe place I […]
Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita and Gabriel Rosenstock well, says the orang-utan at least I’m not a wage slave bhuel, arsa an t-órang-útan ní sclábhaí pá mé ar aon nós
ainneoin na caimiléireachta an ghrian ag taitneamh os cionn Bhleá Cliath in spite of corruption the sun shines over all of Dublin corupție—soarele tot strălucepeste Dublin Photo: Jason Symes Haiku: Gabriel Rosenstock Romanian version: Olimpia Iacob
To Burn or Not to Burn is a bilingual tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllables) by Gabriel Rosenstock in response to artwork by Banksy. To Burn or Not to Burn tá sé ag éirí fuarníl mórán fágtha le dóbratach mo thíre?tar éis a bhfuil déanta aiciar mo shonsa ‘is ar son an domhain! […]
Living on Rathlin Island, six miles from Ballycastle in North Antrim, Mary Cecil ponders life and chronicles her thoughts in poetic form. “The Rathlin Poet”, as she is known, has penned a great many poems, including anti-war verses: hardly surprising for the daughter of a soldier psychologically scarred during service […]
“Gan Teideal” (Untitled) is an Irish-language transcreation of a poem by Marius Mason, who describes himself as a transgender anarchist, environmentalist, and animal-rights prisoner. His activities were reported to the authorities by his husband, and he was sentenced to twenty-two years’ imprisonment. Marius—a father of two—who has worked as a […]
Since the rise of early capitalism, the working people’s quest for liberation and equality for all—including the right to a life in peace—not only for the evolving bourgeois class, has been on the agenda and frequently been framed in religious terms. Translations of the Bible from Latin into the vernacular […]