An Encounter

Publication Instance Details #2805

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	Death Penalty/Unlawful Detention/Incarceration Displacement/Forced Migration
Languages	English
Original Language	Italian
Original Poem	Un incontro
Original Author	Viviana Fiorentino
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Anthology
Notes	Poet’s Note in other online publication: 'These poems that I submitted are a part of my experience as a volunteer in an immigrant detention centre in Northern Ireland. They were written in Italian and translated into English by the poet Maria McManus. The English language versions appear beneath the poems'. – Viviana Fiorentino. The speaker of this poem describes how the birds are free to navigate the vastness of the open sky, but they are not - as refugees in a detention centre, they live under unnatural white light, in a suffocating room without windows. Were they allowed to soar like birds, they would certainly be able to find their own way to a new life. However, as refugees, they can only wait in unnatural centres for their new life to begin.