This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World

By Naomi Shihab Nye

A multicultural anthology of poems represents the poetic voices, observations, traditions, and stories of people from some sixty countries around the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aladdin
• Release date: Jun 24, 2008
• ISBN: 9781439108185

Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared widely. She edited the ALA Notable international poetry collection, This Same Sky, and The Tree Is Older Than You Are: Poems and Paintings from Mexico, as well as The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East. Her books of poems include Fuel, Red Suitcase, and Words Under the Words. A Guggenheim fellow, she is also the author of the young adult novel Habibi, which was named an ALA Notable Book, a Best Book for Young Adults, and winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award as well as the Book Publishers of Texas award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Naomi lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Michael, and their son, Madison.

Book preview

THIS SAME SKY

A Collection of Poems from around the World

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Virginia Norey

Christy Hale

Deborah Maverick Kelley

Aladdin Paperbacks An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020

THIS SAME SKY

A Collection of Poems from around the World

Selected by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

A NOTE TO READERS:

At the time this book went to press, several areas around the world were

in the midst of political turmoil and upheaval. Because of this poets are

sometimes presented with the region rather than the country from which they come.

First Aladdin Paperbacks edition May 1996

Copyright © 1992 by Naomi Shihab Nye

Pages 203-207 constitute an extension of the copyright page.

Aladdin Paperbacks

An imprint of Simon & Schuster

Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form

Also available in a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers edition

Map by Virginia Norey

Designed by Christy Hale

Part-title art by Deborah Maverick Kelley

The text of this book was set in Weiss.

Printed and bound in the United States of America

10 9

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

This same day: a collection of poems from around the world

/ selected by Naomi Shihab Nye.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: A poetry anthology in which 129 poets from sixty-eight different countries celebrate the natural world and its human and animal inhabitants.

ISBN 0-02-768440-7

ISBN 13: 978-0-689-80630-8

eISBN 13: 978-1-439-10818-5

1. Children’s poetry.

2. Children’s poetry—Translations into English. [1. Poetry—Collections.]

I. Nye, Naomi Shihab.

PN6109.97.T49 1992

808.81′936—dc20                              92-11617

ISBN 0-689-80630-2 (Aladdin pbk.)

For the wonderful educators I have been privileged to know over the years, especially Harriett B. Lane, John D. Brantley, William O. Walker, Francisco Treto-Garcia, Claude Zetty, Robert Flynn, Carol Mengden, Mary Howard, Paul Rode, Amy Freeman Lee, Maury Maverick, Jr., Bill White, Rubina Schroeder, Sandee Willis, Donna Northouse, Leonard Nathan, William Stafford, Kim Stafford, Rosemary Catacalos, Brenda Goins, Barbara Orlovsky, Christine Eastus, Samuel Hazo, Lorna Hung, and Carolyn Helfman, who encouraged me to gather this book.

CONTENTS

Introduction,

House of Spring, Musō Soseki,

WORDS AND SILENCES: "Sawdust from under the Saw"

Once I got a postcard from the Fiji Islands, Jaan Kaplinski,

Old Mountains Want to Turn to Sand, Tommy Olofsson,

The Meaning of Simplicity, Yannis Ritsos,

Poetry Was Like This, Al Mahmud,

The Pen, Muhammad al-Ghuzzi,

The Question Mark, Gevorg Emin,

The Gatherer, Ali al-Mak,

Lizard, Bundgård Povlsen,

Between Ebb and Flow, Fadwa Tuqan,

Crowned Crane,

A Tree Within, Octavio Paz,

A Short Story, David Escobar Galindo,

Life of the Cricket, Jorge Carrera Andrade,

Coils the Robot, Floria Herrero Pinto,

from Altazor, Vicente Huidobro,

Paper Doll, Guadalupe Morfín,

Distances of Longing, Fawziyya Abu Khalid,

At the Beach, Kemal Ozer,

Monkeys, Klara Koettner-Benigni,

Freedom, Wimal Dissanayake,

Lamento, Tomas Tranströmer,

Wordless Day, Chang Shiang-hua,

DREAMS AND DREAMERS: Eyes the Color of Sky

In the Kitchen, Jean Joubert,

A Headstrong Boy, Gu Cheng,

Wanting to Move, Vijaya Mukhopadhyay,

The Cucumber, Nazim Hikmet,

The Tin Bird, Ramón C. Sunico,

On My Birthday, Farhad Mazhar,

The Orphan, Muhammad al-Maghut,

Wildpeace, Yehuda Amichai,

Healing, Yannis Ritsos,

Happy as a Dog’s Tail, Anna Swir,

Picnic to the Earth, Shuntarō Tanikawa,

Why There Are No Cats in the Forest, Simeon Dumdum, Jr.,

Song, Cecilia Meireles,

The Sick-Room, R. A. Simpson,

The Shadow Inside Me, Tommy Olofsson,

One day I asked the mirror facing me, Tialuga Sunia Seloti,

The Prison Cell, Mahmud Darwish,

A Sailor’s Memoirs, Muhammad al-Fayiz,

Where is the heart I am calling?, Roberto Juarroz,

Day-Dream, Samarendra Sengupta,

The Parakeets, Alberto Blanco,

A Dream of Paradise in the Shadow of War, Muneer Niazi,

Salt and Memory, Zoltán Zelk,

My Great Grand Uncle, Tarapada Ray,

Magic, Dahlia Ravikovitch,

FAMILIES: The First Tying

Wolf-Ancestry, Vasko Popa,

To the Ancestors,

Childhood, Jean Joubert,

Remembering, Xue Di,

Sparrow,

Transformations, Tadeusz Rózewicz,

Souvenir of the Ancient World, Carlos Drummond de Andrade,

Industrial Childhood, Sharon Stevenson,

I Was Born in Jacinto Vera, Liber Falco,

Weights, Les Murray,

Small Wants, Bibhu Padhi,

Believe It or Not, Nicolai Kantchev,

Brownout, Tony Perez,

Atong, Benilda S. Santos,

Atong and His Goodbye, Benilda S. Santos,

Father and Son, Tomasz Jastrun,

Petrified Minute, Zoltán Zelk,

Companion, Manjush Dasgupta,

A Pearl, Fawziyya Abu Khalid,

A New Dress, Ruth Dallas,

Vistasp, Gieve Patel,

Poem for My Son, Bibhu Padhi,

An Appointment, Chang Shiang-hua,

The First Shoe, Máire Mhac an tSaoi,

Grandmother, Sameeneh Shirazie,

My Life Story, Lan Nguyen,

The Mushroom River, Xue Di,

Letter from My Son, Shihab Sarkar,

Summer, Jayanta Mahapatra,

Jasmine, Kyongjoo Hong Ryou,

Footpath, Stella Ngatho,

Family Portrait, Eka Budianta,

THIS EARTH AND SKY IN WHICH WE LIVE. Water That Used to Be a Cloud

Mindoro, Ramón C. Sunico,

Dawn, Edith Södergran,

Grass, Tom Kristensen,

The Land of Mists, Kwang-kyu Kim,

Spring Poem, Colleen Thibaudeau,

Dew, Linus Suryadi AG,

Beside a stone three, Christine M. Krishnasami,

Country Memory, Leticia Herrera Alvarez,

Cuernavaca, Aline Pettersson,

Mountain Tambourine, Peter van Toorn,

The sodden moss sinks underfoot …, Aleš Debeljak,

Improvisation (Eching), Kevin Ferryman,

Greedy snowslide,

The Sky Is Vast, Pramila Khadun,

The Penguin, Ricardo Yáñez,

The Open Shutter, Karl Krolow,

Wind’s Foam, Al Mahmud,

The Squirrel, Saleem Barakat,

The Birth of a Stone, Kwang-kyu Kim,

Caring for Animals, Jon Silkin,

Autumn and the Sea, Javier Heraud,

Pitcher, Renée Ferrer de Arréllaga,

Cleaned the Crocodile’s Teeth,

Cat, Jibananda Das,

The Moon Rises Slowly over the Ocean, Xu De-min,

Stars at Night, Iku Takenaka,

The Pit Ponies, Leslie Norris,

Great Aso, Tatsuji Miyoshi,

Ants, Yusuf al-Sa’igh,

from Diary of a Woodcutter, Fuad Rifka,

Under This Sky, Zia Hyder,

LOSSES: Kissed Trees

What is it that upsets the volcanoes …, Pablo Neruda,

There’s an Orange Tree Out There, Alfonso Quijada Urías,

Horse by Moonlight, Alberto Blanco,

A Tree, Klara Koettner-Benigni,

Love, Tymoteusz Karpowicz,

A Brief Note to the Bag Lady, Ma Sister, Yusuf Eradam,

A Man Never Cries, José Craveirinha,

Surprise, Blanca Rodriguez,

Oh! Oh! Should They Take Away My Stove … My Inexhaustible Ode to Joy, Miron Bialoszewski,

A Train Is Passing, Poul Borum,

A Gift Horse, Alamgir Hashmi,

In the Lebanese Mountains, Nadia Tueni,

The Garden of a Child, Nirendranath Chakravarti,

Bicycles, Andrei Voznesensky,

The Memory of Horses, Rolf Jacobsen,

Inside, Kim Chiha,

Home, Nasima Aziz,

Before the Game, Vasko Popa,

HUMAN MYSTERIES: White Bracelets

Napoleon, Miroslav Holub,

Locked In, Ingemar Leckius,

Debt, Sunay Akin,

A Boy’s Head, Miroslav Holub,

The Ship’s Whistle, Tarapada Ray,

Sweet Like a Crow, Michael Ondaatje,

Volunteer Worker, Tony Perez,

Behind Bars, Fadwa Tuqan,

On Destiny, Shuntarō Tanikawa,

For Genevieve, Simeon Dumdum, Jr.,

Childhood Is the Only Lasting Flower, Ramón Díaz Eterovic,

Goodness, Benny Andersen,

The Rhythm of the Tomtom, António Jacinto,

Do what you like with my face, Amanda Aizpuriete,

The New Suit, Nidia Sanabria de Romero,

White Bracelets, Colleen Thibaudeau,

I Have Ten Legs, Anna Swir,

The Tongue, Pia Tafdrup,

A man comes in, his suit is crumpled, Sergei Timofeyev,

Greenland’s History, Sven Holm,

The Wall, Tania Diaz Castro,

Jerusalem, Yehuda Amichai,

There are times when I can’t move., Roberto Juarroz,

In his room the man watches, Homero Aridjis,

The Indians, Roberto Sosa,

The Labourer, Toolsy Daby,

Clouds on the Sea, Ruth Dallas,

Or, Ali Darwish,

My Share, Salih Bolat,

Pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch,

Lucia, Lucia Casalinuovo,

Far and Close, Gu Cheng,

At the Ferry, Vijaya Mukhopadhyay,

Notes on the Contributors,

Map,

Suggestions for Further Reading,

Acknowledgments,

Index to Countries,

Index to Poets,

INTRODUCTION

The Turkish poet Kandemir Konduk writes about the apple worm: All he knows, all he has seen, all his joys, all his cares, are as big as his apple.

We cannot live like the apple worm, as much as we may enjoy thinking about him. From over on the next tree, voices are calling to us—from the next orchard even! How are our branches different and our stories similar? And what lovely, larger life becomes ours when we listen to one another?

Poetry has always devoted itself to bringing us into clearer focus—letting us feel or imagine faraway worlds from the inside. During the Gulf War of 1991, when the language of headline news seemed determined to push human experience into the sanitized distance, I found myself searching for poems by Iraqi poets to carry into classrooms. Even if the poems had been written decades earlier, they helped to give a sense of human struggle and real people living behind those headlines.

Those of us living in the United States often suffer from a particular literary provinciality, imagining ourselves to be the primary readers and writers of the planet. We forget that our literary history is relatively brief. Writers in Bangalore, India, asked me what it is like to live in a country with such a young soul. When a writer in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said, "We

Reviews for This Same Sky

[kdangleis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye, contains poems from 129 poets in 68 different countries. The collection’s table of contents is separated by topic: ie., “Words and Silences”, Dreams and Dreamers”, “Families”, This Earth and Sky In Which We Live”, “Losses”, and “Human Mysteries”. From the beginning, the selection creates a reading atmosphere allowing the human connection to resonate. No matter what part of the world one lives, we experience strong similarities. An impressive feature in the back of the book, the author includes a brief set of notes on each of the poets included in her book. This is a wonderful starting point for students interested in finding out more about the poets. Following the several pages of notes, Nye includes a map of the world identifying the countries from where the contributors came. Next, she includes a page of further reading suggestions. Also in the back of the book is an index to the countries so students can easily search for the countries represented in the collection. Finally, there is an index to the poets. This is a great collection for a high school library.