THE CELEBRATED Irish language poet Gabriel Rosenstock, will read from his translation of an anthology of poems by Guantanamo prisoners in Galway tonight.
Mr Rosenstock will read from Guantánamo - CimíanChampa a Chum in Áras na nGael, Dominick Street, at 8pm.
The reading, which will be introduced by Independent city councillor Catherine Connolly, is being organised by the Galway Alliance Against War to highlight the Guantanamo hunger strike which enters its 240th day today.
The organisers of the reading argue these poems give readers access to the inner life of the Guantanamo prisoners.
“It is hard to imagine how prisoners, hunger strikers, the victims of torture, find the strength as well as the detachment to craft language into images that evoke this world,” said a GAAW spokesperson. “Yet, here we have a collection of poems that do just this. This is something no newspaper article or history book will ever be able to relate in quite the same way – finding images where words are inadequate.”
The spokesperson went on to say Mr Rosenstock’s translation is “not aimed at a small group of ‘native speakers’ – it is a collection expressing shared experience, where language adds in many complex ways to the emotional impact. It is a book we need to read in Irish. It highlights a bitter irony: despite our own history of suffering as a people, consecutive Irish governments, via Shannon Airport, have colluded in the tortures inflicted upon these very poets.”
Admission is free and all are welcome.
