Afrin : and the Creature That Used to Be Called Human Being / Efrîn by Hussein Habasch and translated by Rainer Maria Gassen

This is poetry from Syria.

Afrin : and the Creature That Used to Be Called Human Being / Efrîn by Hussein Habasch translated by Rainer Maria Gassen is published by Cross-Cultural Communications / Hogir Verlag. This is a Book originally written in Kurdish. This was published in 2019.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780893045326E12.

Afrin: And the Creature That Used to Be Called Human Being, by Hussein Habasch and translated by Rainer Maria Gassen, is a Kurdish poetry collection whose title already carries historical wound and metamorphosis. Afrin is not just a location here; it is a charged place-name, a homeland marker, and likely a site of violence, displacement, and survival. The “creature that used to be called human being” is one of those phrases that makes the political bodily. It suggests war has altered the category of the human itself. I would read this book as witness poetry that does not rely only on statement, but on transformation, grief, and bitter imagination. Gassen’s translation brings Kurdish experience through English, and the result seems necessary for readers thinking about exile, border, and language under siege.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.