Transcendence

In Etel Adnan’s poem “from Transcendence” in Inclined to Speak she demonstrates her adept ability to describe despair. Here her use of metaphor creates striking imagery and emotion. Visually and through sound when reading the poem aloud, I noticed quickly the unusual format of a few words per line. Adnan easily creates a feeling of urgency. She also draws us in as reader when she uses the repetition of “we” and makes the poem personal. She writes,

“we hear cries

over the telephone

we don’t see

tears

we don’t see

eyes

it’s a matter

of what we

hear

of contamination

of knowledge learned

in spare time

and fingernails

bitten

and desires

beaten down

and shame running

down

our

legs”

In this poem one can infer that Adnan is likely a voice for family and friends who are subject to fear, isolation, violence and rape. It is her connection to pain through listening to stories over the phone. Although Adnan does not give us details of these stories, we can feel the intensity of the suffering taking place. In the metaphor “shame running down our legs” we can interpret that she is most likely speaking of women and knowing Adnan’s background we can infer that the women she is speaking to over the phone are most likely in Lebanon.

Since my undergraduate degree is in American Studies (Ethnic Studies pathway) I do not know as much as I would like to about international politics and after reading this poem I wanted to learn more about the country and it’s political history. In reading some background about Lebanon I learned that the country has about 400,000 Palestinian refugees since 1948, a civil war occurred from 1975 to 1991 with internal conflict and violence still prevalent in cities such as Beirut, and domestic violence reports estimate “that as many as three-quarters of all Lebanese women have suffered physical abuse at the hands of husbands or male relatives at some point in their lives” (IRINnews, September 2009). Also, there is a new bill in Lebanon that is being proposed to take domestic violence cases out of the religious courts and into the civil system. Since currently the religious courts usually favor the male partner this would create more equality for the women.

Most noteworthy about Etel Adnan’s poetry is she brings political issues of the Middle East to the surface and puts a human face on them. I admire her work for it’s sophisticated, blatant voice of survival and transcendence over oppression and death. It is a preeminent voice of hope; poetry her instrument.

Lastly, I also enjoyed a piece by Adrienne Su from Asian American Poetry called “The English Canon” an academic jab, a witty poem that does exactly that, criticizes the English canon and the “cultural norms” that often tend to attempt to hold back women of color. In her speaking on this pressure to conform, she breaks free from some repressive traditions from both American and Chinese culture. In the last stanza of the poem she is empowered yet humbled. She writes,

And she has to know from the gut whom to trust,

Because what do her teachers know, living in books,

And what does she know, starting from scratch?”