A Poetic Resistance

“I am Rohingya”,an anthology of poems, articulates the urgency and passion of the genocide survivors. They reclaim their experience, their group identity and their agency from the victimhood that has framed their existence for so long. The collection is the first of its kind to be translated and written in English, yet it speaks to the deep significance of all three languages in which the poetry was originally conceived — Rohingya, Burmese and English.It combines the literary traditions of Rohingya song and Burmese and English poetic styles for the English language readership. The maintenance of Rohingya language traditions through song and poetry stands defiant against the cultural and historical erasure of the Rohingya as a distinct group belonging to Myanmar that has occurred as part of the genocide.The translations of these Rohingya language songs and poetry, such as ‘Love song’ and ‘Lament (a fisherman’s song)’ and ‘Night blooming jasmine’, explore the issues of love and marriage and invoke the age-old rhythms of life in Arakan through the thick imagery of the market places, fishing boats and wedding ceremonies.

Much of the poetry, including that translated from Burmese, highlights the mutual bonds between Rohingya and the broader nation-state of Myanmar.Many of the poems written in the English language read as an urgent plea and protest to outside world – as Rohingya survivors attempt to process and come to terms with the failure of international bodies and governments to take action to protect them in an ongoing situation of genocide or to effectively sanction the perpetrating military and government in Myanmar, who continue to reap the benefits and riches of power.Despite these laments, this collection encapsulates hope; it is part of a broader concerted global effort and nascent movement on the part of a generation of Rohingya survivors of genocide outside of Myanmar to lift, celebrate and take pride in the Rohingya identity, for which they have as a people paid the ultimate price.

The collection is a testament to the remarkable resilience of genocide survivors in the refugee camps of Bangladesh and elsewhere in diaspora who, despite their individual and collective trauma, use their creative voice to revive and regenerate their culture, traditions and group identity damaged over decades by Myanmar’s slow-burning genocide. This poetry book personifies Rohingya resistance and activism at its most creative form.