In the Marches: Germany

Publication Instance Details #2780

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	War HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies Displacement/Forced Migration
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Syrian Civil War
Irish Context	Specific Irish place or place-name mentioned Other
Languages	English
Genre	Part Of Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	''Time and patience bring the snail to Jerusalem,'' Proverb from the Irish During the Syrian exodus Belfast 3-5 September 2015
Notes	The speaker of the poem alludes to Germany’s actions in accepting Syrian refugees during the Syrian exodus during the Syrian civil war. The poem appears to point out that Germany’s (and the Western World's) guilt at the Holocaust has also led to Israel, the 'snail' in the poem that goes where it wills, being allowed free reign in Palestine, judging by the middle portion of the poem, which points out the 'Proper' and 'Greater' Israels - the 'Greater' likely in reference to post-1947 expansion into Palestinian lands. The paratext gives the dates as 3-5 Sept 2015, around the time when Germany (through Merkel) began to accept Syrian refugees into the country. The Sebaldian swerve probably refers to the German author W.G. Sebald, who was himself in the Reichswehr (German army) during World War II, and whose work was focused on memory and the trauma of the war.