******OUR POETRY ARCHIVE******: April 2024

Monday, April 1, 2024

April 2014 V-10 N-1 Issue No. 109

WORLDWIDE WRITERS’ WEB

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BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA INTERVIEW

NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH

POET OF THE MONTH

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA

APRIL 2024

NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive, dear poet. And congratulations as the poet of this month. I would like to know your personal views on literature or poetry in general.

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poetry is treatment of humanity with words. Poets usually paint pictures with words. We express our feelings in words. But how to convey is quite another matter. The poet is born with the power of speech given by the Lord. Poetry is all about poet’s destiny... Destiny is usually written by a poet. True poetry is written only when own destiny is accepted by a poet. Genuine poetry requires sacrifice. The poet quarrels and makes friends with the wind, kisses snow and hates it, flies like an echo.

NILAVRONILL: What are the factors that have influenced you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life. When, most probably you were not certain of your future as a poet or writer. Do you think society as a whole is the key factor in shaping up you as a poet, or your poetry altogether?

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I was seriously ill and got treatment in hospital in 2011. This is my secret of course. I must tell you this. I fell in love with a man 11 years younger than me, but it was one sided love. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I cried regretting that if I were beautiful, I would have married that man. That man seemed to be my whole life, food, air, earth, and water. I wrote 145 verses in 6 months trying to please him and be beautiful. So, my book called "Dusty page" was published. Poets live in society whether they want it or not, but at the same time society is a kind of threat for poets’ tender hearts. They look for the world they long for. Maybe it is not on earth. The poet's feelings are gloomy and aggressive. Their feelings make them selfish. My feelings require faithfulness. As if it says look at me, be next to me, take care of me, it's as if this force controls me. In my life there have been lots of cases when I am unable to control everything. When poets are involved in writing, they become isolated from their children and spouses. They mostly live in opposition. Their internal conflict seems to other people to be weird and crazy. The conflict arises within the family, and they prefer leaving this real world for another world. Thus, poetry turns into the poetry of cosmos. Poet’s heart hurts; he is hated by his family members and society. He will not fit into the society.

NILAVRONILL: Do you consider your literary life as an extension of your self-existence? If so, how it is related with the time around you?

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I believe that poetry is not related to time. Even if you are 50 years old, you can live with love and feelings of an eighteen-year-old girl. I breathe with the heart of an eighteen-year-old girl. Poetry is against time. The poet lives in a chaotic and unstable society. The poet can never live in peace; there is a constant battle in his inner world. Poetry is half of my soul. I feel like as if two persons live in me. a) I am Sagyn Berkinalieva, an ordinary Kyrgyz woman, mother of three children. b) Lyrical character – Josephine. My Josephine is like no one. She is a tender, beautiful young woman. She is a beautiful, magical dancer who cries for love all her life. She is a lyrical character whose feelings are uncontrollable. Josephine is the name of my feeling. I don't write my poems, but Josephine does.

NILAVRONILL: As a poet, do socio-economy and politics in general influence your literary visions? If so how, and if not, why?

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I am not concerned in any politics or economy; they aren’t my topic. My poetry is all about my emotional instability. I wrote only lyrics and love. I could not cover other topics.

NilavroNill: Is it possible to put into the words everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poet’s pure soul should be put into the words. It is only then that the poem creates life, and energy appears in it. A poet creates a poem in a state of trance, and that's when the reader is seduced into the poem. The way the poet feels in a trance state, the listener and the reader also fall into that trance. I think that a poet must not only write a poem, but also be able to recite it in front of an audience with acting skills. These days I am reciting them among ordinary people in hospitals. If the poetry is effective, the sick person gets out of stress. I understood this from my own experience.

NilavroNill: Do you agree with John Keats (1795-1821) on his ardent believe, “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth”? Even if we take for instance the the fall out of second world war in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can we manage to reconcile between those truths with beauty as promulgated by Keats?

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I can answer your question as a poet. Poetry written from the real heart is beautiful. Creation based on experience is beauty. To know the value of beauty and happiness human beings should feel death and disaster. Life without death is worthless. Life without accidents is bitter. The war in Hiroshima was a great lesson for humanity and the necessity to save the world arose. A quote from John Keats is a bitter truth.

NilavroNill: Too many writers believe imagery is an essential part of poetry. Do you agree this notion? Even if we consider Leonardo da Vinci’s words that poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poetry is not created easily. It vibrates in the blood vessels, turns into red blood, and comes out in a warm state. Poetry is a magical feeling that cannot be held by the hands but can be felt with the heart.

NilavroNill: Do you believe, passionately falling in love with a particular language is essential to excel in poetical ventures? And is it possible to write poems in multiple languages preserving same literary quality? We would like to know your own experiences.

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Innate true feelings of the poet can be expressed well only in his or her native language. But poetry translated into other languages is distorted anyway. No matter how adequate the translation is, it doesn’t convey everything written in the source text. English language helped me to get into world poetry. In 2019, a collection of lyrical poems "Girl Dancing in the Sky" was published in English. Poets who translated the book from Kyrgyz into English are Altynai Toktomatova (Kyrgyzstan) and John Farndon (Great Britain). Now my poems are translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Hindi, Filipino, Greek, Albanian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Uzbek, Kazakh, Georgian, Turkish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Persian languages. They were included in more than 50 poetic anthologies in European newspapers and magazines. Currently, I am working closely with Latin American poets. Recently, on December 16, I gave an interview about my work for an hour to virtual television of Colombia and Argentina. Also, my poems are constantly recited on the radio broadcasts of Colombia, Mexico and Spain. But it doesn’t mean that I have made it to the top.

NilavroNill: Do you consider poetry as an emotional outbursts of poet’s personal sentiments? Or is it a long journey to realize and express the universal sentiments beyond all personal limitations? Again, we want to understand your views through your personal experiences of your literary life as a poet.

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: A poet's fate will be a tragedy for a poet, because a poet will not be satisfied with himself throughout his life. Poetry and the author are two completely different things. I am an unhappy person in life. Love has been hard for me. Not a single man caressed me as a woman. No one kissed my cheeks, and stroked my hair. I am a woman hungry for affection. I don't understand myself. There were days when I had no appetite and went to bed. I said that I suffered from unkind and unrequited love for six years. There were days when my husband beat me. Because I wrote about my feelings and what I went through honestly in my poems. My husband did not like such poems; there were many arguments in the family. But I have always been true to my poems. It would be a sin against God. It is really difficult for a poet to assess whether he is a bad or a good poet. Poetry is a kind of destiny. I think that the main goal for a real poet is not fame, but that the use of poetry for people. Every poet should think over why I was born as a poet, and for whom I write poems. I think that poets should write pure poetry. This is the main duty of poets!

NilavroNill: Would you consider, it should be the goal of a poet to enlightens the readers towards much greater apprehensions as well as appreciations of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to write poems only to console the poet’s soul?

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I used to write poems when I was heartbroken. Once after my poems were published, I became responsible more and more. I started to be in search of everything. Now I pray to God that my poems will serve humanity.

NILAVRONILL: We are almost at the end of the interview. I remain obliged to you for your participation. Now, personally I would like to know your honest opinion about Our Poetry Archive. Since April 2015 we are publishing and archiving contemporary world poetry each and every month. Thank you for sharing your views and spending much time with us.

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poetry serves humanity no matter what language it is written in. Poets should unite for the sake of poetry. This way you do a great job and you will be appreciated by Almighty. If one line of a poet's poem heals a person, then the poet becomes happy. Long live Poetry!

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: (Kyrgyz Republic) Berkinalieva Sagynbүbү Abdysamatovna was born in 1974 in the village of Uzgurush in Talas region. Member of the National Writers’ Union of Kyrgyzstan, member of Eurasian Creative Guild, member of the Writers' Union of North America. Head of the Kyrgyz branch of the Writers' Union of North America. Published works: 1) "Sheet covered with the dust" (Publishing house "Biyiktik" -2014). 2) "Girl dancing in the sky" (Publishing house "Great mountains" – 2019). Collection of poems, where were included Sagun’s Berkinalieva poems: "Dedication to Jolon", "Kyzdar ai", "Caravan of songs", "Dedication to the homeland". In 2016 she took part in the competition for young poets and won the Audience Award. Diploma winner for active participation in the competition of young poets "Mekenge taazim" and "Besh Akin" in 2017. Diploma winner of the Festival of Eurasian Week of Culture, which was held in Great Britain (London). In 2019 she had participated in an International Competition of Eurasian Creative Guild in Belgium (Brussels). She won the first place in the nomination of poetry and was awarded the "Lyre" medal for the best female lyrics. In 2019 she was awarded "The Best Poet of the Year" in Kyrgyzstan according to the results of the republican newspaper “Erkin Too”. Recently was published a collection of poetry "Girl dancing in the sky" in English. (Britain Britain), the poems were translated by remarkable poet of England John Farndon. The publication took place thanks to a grant to the first place in the competition “Open Eurasia”. She has got the highest award of the International Prize "Amber Nugget". Laureate of the first prizes of the International Prize "Old Record" named after Leonid Utesov. Laureate of the International Literary Prize "Duke de Richelieu" (Pushkin and Gogol in Italy). In 2021, she was awarded the silver badge of the Writers' Union of North America and Marley. Academician and honorary worker of the Writers' Union of North America She has got the Grand Prize of the International competition named after Anna Snitkina Dostoevskaya, (SPSA). International Laureate of the Liftt Competition - 2021. Winner of the 1st degree diploma for the International Mark Twain Prize "Simpletons Abroad". Honorary Member of the Writers' Union of North America. Academician and honorary member of the Academy of Literature, Art and Communication. Academician of World Literature and Art (Marley) Laureate of the Petrarch International Literary Prize Laureate of the International Literary Prize Matsuo Base Honorary Member of the World International Chamber of Poets in Italy Laureate of the International Song Festival in Portugal

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA

O Lord, I cannot live on the land –

Let waves float me out over the sea.

Drinking foaming waves, I would soon

Turn into an Angel and fly away free!

In the city of the cruel,

There’s no value in endeavour.

I bury myself in thick white snow

To hide my heart forever.

But if I cower away from battle

Unnoticed and hard to see,

How can I then resent it

When fate’s unkind to me?

In my careless youth, I’d many a fault,

And made countless mistakes, of course.

Yet I am still a fiercely burning force,

And though I’m still far from my goal,

I’m a blue flashing, LIGHTNING BOLT!

My head is aching from this empty affair.

I am tired by words and words going nowhere.

I’m so distressed – stop haunting my dreams.

And I curse you for leaving me to despair.

It’s distressing for me that I’m held in disdain –

Love’s showing an ugly face now again.

And when I remember, I’m full of regret –

Hot bitterness swells and fills me with pain.

Now we are the casualties

Of shameless lies and slurs again.

Like a venomous snake, cold words

Wind and slither down our lane.

And now I’m lying in my grave –

He buried me before I was dead.

I am so hurt by this man of ice –

The man with who I shared my bed.

Josephine, you’re so receptive –

Like a mother you’ve been to me

You were sent by the Almighty

As my inseparable twin to be.

Let me sing, poets, let me sing,

And let your applause sweetly roll.

Today, flowers bloom in my heart –

White lilies, the queens of the soul.

For you, a garden’s unfurled,

And my lilies will cover the world.

Butterflies of gorgeous hues are dancing here before my eyes,

And as I write down every verse, it seems I am in paradise.

I have become Happiness’s choir.

Look at me, people, and admire!

Applaud me, cheer me, warmly praise me –

Help my inspiration raise me.

May in my words joy be revealed.

Dear folks, let yourselves be healed!

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA

AGRON SHELE

Image That Is Raised

The time marches ahead

It doesn’t know how to stop the hour hands

Nor how to change the destiny of the road it chose.

Long is this throb, like the sound of church bells

where I congregate.

Or simply a fragment of what vanishes in the air

And again, the same mirror appears.

A reverence,

A hand in the name of father, son and holy spirit

To the knights whose spilt blood is on each erected stone

And the saints pictured on cupola, hunting the devils.

They have fallen on earth nowadays

I see them celebrate

I see the apocalyptic flood

A sea raised from the abyss

And a Noah that pushes his ark

To give an end

To the hope weaved on earth

From the new avaricious that rebuild their lives

from a foundation of pain

To be demolished again into the Hades waiting for them.

The time flies ahead

With its head turned aback

Towards a remission to save the soul

From the sinful fleshly temptation

Outside the skin

Tattoos with disfigured faces

Idols up in flames

Anchors of ships on pirate crusades

With soutane waving in the wind

Prayers for disease;

Because nothing can be more than a human

Except for the image of the clay effortfully constructed

Unknown Woman

Evening falls slowly over this town

and snowflakes fly so easily,

they remember the frozen roads they can touch

then a woman appears clutching her scarf

lowers the beret over the eyes

and she laughs

a slight worldly tendency

and traces lost in time.

I could come back again tomorrow

but I know

I will never see such a beauty again,

only an image reflected in my memory

and the spark of a moment that I never forget.

In The End It Is

I must look beyond the dream,

imagination, how far a love goes

in the heart,

or in the soul running so high in the sky and I can't reach it,

I miss you

and makes me move my chair and tell you,

this table that collected the last crumbs of our smile

was overturned tonight

and another love approached me.

I don't want excessive colors,

just a smile with an extra glass of wine,

in the blessed evening

with the candlestick of a heathen care

that I admire so much,

those in the worldly soul and burning in sparks of flame,

while you and I, in the innocent smile

in the world of fools

and one more glass in the unquenchable fire of love

that burns through the night.

I could write much longer,

maybe endless

but still, a fleeting moment

and a great sorrow,

left with the taste of a charm cast so innocently.

It is not lips kissed only once

but glass washed in emerald,

where I forget my free world

and you get even more drunk in the seventh heaven.

Let's stop the time a little

to look beyond fate's mirror,

simply, like a traveler who finds the jacket of the written cross;

and you, ah, you...

a pain that pierces like an arrow to the end!

Translated Into English By Merita Paparisto

AGRON SHELE

AGRON SHELE was born in October 7th, 1972, in the Village of Leskaj, city of Permet, Albania. Is the author of the following literary works: “The Steps of Clara” (Novel), “Beyond a grey curtain” (Novel), “Wrong Image” (Novel) , “Innocent Passage” (Poetry), Whiste stones ( poetry) RIME SPARSE -Il suono di due voci poetiche del Mediterraneo (Poesie di Agron Shele e Claudia Piccinno), La mia Musa (“Libri di-versi in diversi libri” – Italy, 2020); Murmure d’ un autre monde (poetry), Klisania, Queen of the lake (Short story) and “Ese-I and Ese-II) ” . Mr. Shele is also the coordinator of International Anthologies: “Open Lane- 1,” “Pegasiada , Open Lane- 2 , ATUNIS magazine ( Nr 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 )” and Atunis Galaxy Antholgy 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. He is winner of some international literary prizes. Is a member of the Albanian Association of Writers, member of the World Writers Association, in Ohio, United States, Poetas del Mundo, WPS, Unione world Poetry and the President of the International Poetical Galaxy “Atunis”. He is published in many newspapers, national and international magazines, as well as published in many global anthologies: Almanac 2008, 2017; World Poetry Yearbook 2009, 2013, 2015, The Second Genesis -2013, Kibatek 2015-Italy, Metafora (Poland), Keleno- Greece, etc. Currently Resides in Belgium and continues to dedicate his time and efforts in publishing literary works with universal values.

ALICIA MINJAREZ RAMÍREZ

Nocturnal Sun

There, where the wind fades away

The sky waves its own branches

Retouching icy mornings

In the shades,

Blackbirds and pigeons flapping

And disturbing the sky.

I aimlessly wander through.

Every corner evokes

Spiral lines of perpetually

Ever written sonnets,

Unveiled brides

Blur the color lines

Upon vacant altars.

I become chrysalis

Under the chaos of progress.

I extend my hands

And find only emptiness.

Where do these streets lead me to?

I try to jump over my shadow,

Gradually move

From green to yellow…

Exorbitant looks

Lacking everything

And nothing at all.

In the swinging mist

Every step reflected upon

Its own reflection,

When the twilight expands

I force myself to take shortcuts

That lead me nowhere.

Broken hearts,

Moon’s usurped glow,

Yielding ghosts

To the impregnable shine

Of window cars.

Stillness moves,

Static seconds,

Silence declines,

I emigrate with no belongings;

Brittle and gloomy spectrum

De-kernelling good-byes.

My mind is on hold,

Stars cry about

Humidity’s shortage

And eclectic rains,

My voice drowns.

Blink away

The ethereal fire of my eyes,

I release myself from prejudice.

I release myself

From body and soul

As nocturnal sun

Amidst the desert.

Translated By: Alaric Gutiérrez.

Lontananzas

I built you up

From diaphanous drops

That clarify

The thin contour

Of the wind’s arms.

Those dancing

Upon my face,

Hold up and excuse

The rising of

Light stealth birds

On the horizon.

Sky wings bearing

Fragrant

Polyphonic aromas,

Diluting moist loams

In vetiver and bergamot,

Disseminated

Over your body’s drought.

I envision you

In my silent

Barren palms,

As drops upon my river;

Ecstatic the open sea

Conspires,

Flows against formed

Verbal tide,

In ivy language.

Warp naked

Fanciful voices,

Dawning deep

Inside my skin,

Cracking

Desire’s opacity.

I built you up!

While it rains.

Translated By: Alaric Gutiérrez.

Far Away Air

Each sparkle has a distant and severe air.

Dusty breeze undoing

Selfless prejudices,

Diaphanous sky

Of faraway shores.

Untellable words!

Sweet craving that leads

And mitigates nostalgia,

Drunkenness of the moment

Impossible fight

Bold and incandescent soul.

Every sound is a wonderful caress

Momentum, track and halo of a transient light.

Each sparkle has a distant and severe air.

I understand the instant is non-existing matter.

Burns like a wound inscribed within our consciousness,

Affliction goes away.

Full delight of interrogations and absences,

Depths and appearances;

Defining the earthly paradise hell

Of my own communion.

Each sparkle has a distant and severe air.

I learn to live

In the branches of a secret dream,

Of a fiery shade,

In the shortened line

Of abysmal dementia.

Choleric air of ephemeral tears

Shake up my roots.

Lewd whisper

Born from the body,

Proclaiming the cavity

Of long-gone solitudes.

Translated By: Alaric Gutiérrez.

ALICIA MINJAREZ RAMÍREZ

Dr. ALICIA MINJAREZ RAMÍREZ: Poet, translator, singer, university professor, radio and television broadcaster. She was born in Tijuana, Mexico. She is an internationally renowned writer, who has received numerous awards, including: Honoris Causa Doctorate awarded by the International Forum of Creativity and Humanity in Morocco and A Thousand Minds for Mexico Association, 2020. Winner of the first place at the International Poetry Festival in Bulgaria, 2021. The EASAL Medal of the European Academy of Sciences and Letters 2018 in Paris, France. WNWU "Pride of the Globe" Award, Kazakhstan 2018. Cultural Ambassador at Inner Child Press International, United States, 2019. "Inspirational Universal Poet" Award, Pentasi B. World, India 2017. Special Mention and a Medal at the International Poetry Award NOSSIDE Italia 2016 and 2015, recognized by UNESCO, among others. She is the author, co-author and translator of 30 books of poetry. Her poems have been translated into 20 languages and published in more than 300 anthologies, magazines and international newspapers.

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Monday, April 1, 2024

April 2014 V-10 N-1 Issue No. 109

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA INTERVIEW

BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA

AGRON SHELE

ALICIA MINJAREZ RAMÍREZ

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