A very good introduction to contemporary persian poetry. ( )

Utterly gorgeous. Here the political becomes personal and vice versa with haunting results. Aspects of the poems suffers in translation, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much wit, playfulness, and outrage managed to come through regardless.

The power behind poetry is as much in what is written as what is left unsaid. Poetry is the art of a few punctuating words that evoke a meaning so deep within, reaching to a place where thoughts cannot be explained and words would not do justice. To read a book of poetry, is to immerse yourself in a place where not all can travel, only those with feeling and sometimes an eager imagination. BELONGING is poetry of life, of death, and of existence. A book of poetry gathered together, edited and translated by Niloufar Talebi, which brings the modern poetry of the Iranian people into the hands of those who read in English.

BELONGING is a book of power and bravery, bringing forth a light on a culture that is judged so often, and misunderstood even more frequently. To know a people, is to know what causes their pain, grief, joy, and hope, and my belief is that once you know that you cannot go back to the fear that the unknown enjoys. Far from political, far from justification,defensive or offensive words, BELONGING is a union of Iranian voices from around the globe that shows the talent and beauty they bring especially as they are joined together.

I personally enjoy poetry, but not all of it. I love the modern, non-rhyming lines that actually don't choose their words based on what would make a meter or rhyme, but on what would convey the feeling and bring forth the meaning that is intended with their words. BELONGING is filled with that, with simple, modern, true, rough, and honest writing, I loved it! This is a book of truth, not over dramatization or draining emotional writing. It is poetry of the people and of words that we can all relate to.

Niloufar Talebi has joined together many Iranian authors from all around the world, translated their works and put them in a book called BELONGING, but that is not all he has done. There is an amazing art festival that will travel around the US to perform and bring awareness to the Iranian arts, it is called The Translation Project. It encompasses poetry, dancing, acting, and music, all a splendor of celebration and art from the Iranian culture. ( )

I was thrilled to find that Belonging is exactly what I hoped it would be: a collection of poems that not only introduce me to a culture I am woefully unfamiliar with but also reaffirm that many themes are universal.

While some of the works in this anthology are clearly tied explicitly to the Iranian culture, many more are accessible to anyone who has felt loss, love, confusion or exaltation. In other words, these poems are for everybody. ( )

Poetry will inevitably suffer greatly from translation, so the power that the poems in Belonging retain in English is impressive. Many of the images in the collection are crisp, surprising, and perhaps a bit disturbing.

The theme of identity ties the collection together. Many of the poems deal directly the formation of an identity in exile, rebelling against the demands of both "home" and the "exile." Other poems, notably Saghi Ghahraman's examine forming an identity against expectations of femininity and motherhood. ( )