Being a gay poet in Iran: ‘Writing on the edge of crisis’
Being a gay poet in Iran: ‘Writing on the edge of crisis’
An interview with "Index on Censorship" (an international organisation that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression). Read the interview at the link below...
William Leo Coakley (and Robin Prising)say: Keep the flame of your beautiful poems burning. We will watch for them in English and let people know about you. In my youth in Boston it was very conxwevative, with no whiff of homosexuality. Worlds can change.This year I won a prize there for translating a poem by the great Cavafy about having sex with a boy in a taverna in Alexandria and how the image remained with him decades later to be preserved in his poetry. Here is a poem in solidarity:
SECOND LANGUAGE
In Boston we learned Egyptian early In the Fine Arts—picture transformed to word: The beauty of their members. At Mrs Gardner’s, “Those men are Fairies!”—so I heard.
By Walden Pond, men undressing, Its pure waters alive in the sun, The beauty of their members revealed A second language—I was undone.
William Leo Coakley (and Robin Prising)say: Keep the flame of your beautiful poems burning. We will watch for them in English and let people know about you. In my youth in Boston it was very conxwevative, with no whiff of homosexuality. Worlds can change.This year I won a prize there for translating a poem by the great Cavafy about having sex with a boy in a taverna in Alexandria and how the image remained with him decades later to be preserved in his poetry. Here is a poem in solidarity:
ReplyDeleteSECOND LANGUAGE
In Boston we learned Egyptian early
In the Fine Arts—picture transformed to word:
The beauty of their members. At Mrs Gardner’s,
“Those men are Fairies!”—so I heard.
By Walden Pond, men undressing,
Its pure waters alive in the sun,
The beauty of their members revealed
A second language—I was undone.
William Leo Coakley
helikonp@gmail.com