Diya Ciwan Translated from the Kurdish by Clémence Scalbert-Yücel
So much, this needle has done! With her tiny body, she did the work of a plowshare. With her delicate tip, I sewed shut the mouth of hunger, and buried destitution. She's my heavy weapon, sharper than a dagger, handier than big words. When she gleams in my hand the blood under my fingernail turns sweet. On my fabric she ploughs the plains and the fallow land of life. With her shaft, I kohl my eyes. With her sharp end, I raise the pillar of life. If she drops out of sight I shall look for her, crying for help. For as long as there is light in my eyes I shall never leave her, or swap her for the Sword of Damascus.
"Dr. Farr, a longtime professor at Georgetown University, published two seminal academic books examining the place of art and nature in Dickinson’s poetry, The Passion of Emily Dickinson (1992) and The Gardens of Emily Dickinson (written with Louise Carter, 2004)."
"When a poem begins to pile up the similes, comparing an object to multiple other objects, there’s going to be trouble. Multiple similes signify instability. An emotional shift is likely to take place, a disappearance or a metamorphosis. What we get in the second part of 'The Meadow Mouse' is a disappearance."
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