Calls From Back Home: Telling the Stories of the War Diaspora
Sinthujan Varatharajah Tamil Guardian 20 July 2013
When my Amma calls me on the telephone, she sometimes fills the distance that separates us by reading me her poetry and asking me for translations and opinions. She often wants me to translate her own writing from our shared mother tongue, Tamil, to German or English. This leads to inevitable debates on words, meanings, worlds and linguistic displacements. Many of her poetry and short stories center around themes on war, resistance, diaspora, feminism, her hometown Jaffna and her own beloved mother.
Sinthujan Varatharajah Tamil Guardian 20 July 2013
First published in The Aerogram on 17th July 2013. See here for original article. Text reproduced in full below.
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| Photograph The Aerogram |
When my Amma calls me on the telephone, she sometimes fills the distance that separates us by reading me her poetry and asking me for translations and opinions. She often wants me to translate her own writing from our shared mother tongue, Tamil, to German or English. This leads to inevitable debates on words, meanings, worlds and linguistic displacements. Many of her poetry and short stories center around themes on war, resistance, diaspora, feminism, her hometown Jaffna and her own beloved mother.
