A Voice from the Ashes

An Anthology of Poems by Zhaleh Alamtaj Ghaemmaghami

De: Zhaleh Ghaemmaghami, polytekton

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

A Note by the Translators
One may ask why we have chosen to write about Zhaleh and translate her work into the English language at a moment when the women's movement and resistance against patriarchal power structures have come of age in many parts of the world. What makes us interested in her work is the universality of the themes and emotions permeating her voice - a resistance against injustice and a call for equality and justice as an inborn right of every human being. In refusing to be defined as an object of desire in a society bound by power relations that privileged and entrenched male dominance in the name of religion, Zhaleh's voice remains especially relevant in parts of the world still bound by such relations. Indeed, the translation of her poetry reflecting the assertion of female subjectivity and search for identity would help in broadening the awareness of women's struggle against patriarchy in various societies across the world.
The didactic dimension of her poems, her courage, her resistance to power, her fight against injustice, and her hope for a better future for coming generations of women are among the reasons that encouraged us to translate her poems into English. Since the system of poetics in Persian literature and culture is completely different from the English, we have made no attempt to find an equal form of versification in the translated version. In other words, the rendition of the poet's message has been our main aim.