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Alone in Babel, Arts & CultureJuly 5, 2014

Quarter-finals: Venezuela-Tunisia

PREAMBLE

“Capacity to surprise” is one of those critical stock phrases that reviewers love to fall back on when talking about poetry. Google “poetry + capacity to surprise” and you’ll find well over a hundred thousand hits: a number large enough to suggest that the phrase “capacity to surprise” has long since lost its… well, you see where I’m going with this.

The first match of the Poetry World Cup quarter-finals brings together two countries that have caused more than their fair share of surprises in getting this far. In today’s vote, we’ll find out which one will be going through to the World Cup semis.

MEET THE POETS

Our Venezuelan representative is Rafael Ayala Páez, a young poet whose work is already beginning to be noticed around the world. His poems have been translated from Spanish into English, French, German and Hebrew, and we’re presenting his work in Roger Hickin’s English translation. Rafael Ayala Páez draws on a number of traditions, and a “spiritual connection to the culture of India” lies behind poems such as ‘Vaisvanara/Agni’.

Representing Tunisia is Ali Znaidi, an English teacher from Redeyef who claims that smoking and green tea are crucial to his “moments of revelation”. Ali Znaidi’s poems have been widely-published in recent years (he is reputedly the first Tunisian poet ever to have published a collection of haiku in English), and his work has been translated into German, Greek, Turkish and Italian. He has also translated work by the New Mexican poet Catfish McDaris into Arabic.

FORM GUIDE

Venezuela overcame Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament, then caused probably the biggest shock of the last round by eliminating the USA. Tunisia have been involved in two close games, beating Botswana via a golden vote and then overtaking Bermuda in the final hour of voting last time out.

                         

Impressions

Memory is in the fingertips
Colors are in the eyes
Infancy is contained in the backbone
Worlds are born in broken shells
There will always be a sign in every object
made vague in the horizon
An infinite omen in the night
A sparkle suspended on the forehead
An old smell beneath the pebbles
A red sun behind the hills
Sunrises on the eyelids
Balloons floating in the sky…

~ Rafael Ayala Páez, trans. Roger Hickin

Read the full poem (in Spanish and English)

Talk to Me, Apple

Talk to me apple
before a hungry
mouth devours you.
Talk to me apple
before the sun
dries your skin.
Talk to me apple
before a knife
peels you from
extreme to extreme.
Talk to me apple…

~ Ali Znaidi

Read the full poem

 

RESULT: Tunisia won by 29 votes

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Ali ZnaidiPoetry World CupRafael Ayala Páez

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Previous articleRound 2: Iran-Laos
Next articleQuarter-finals: Trinidad & Tobago-Singapore

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at [email protected].

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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