Lines written during the Gulf War, January 1991

Publication Instance Details #303

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	War Gender-based violence
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War War: Gulf War
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Línte a Scríobhadh le linn Chogadh na Murascaille, Eanáir 1991
Original Author	Gabriel Rosenstock
Genre	Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The poet-speaker of the poem writes of his uncle Wolf, who has fled post-war Germany and is haunted by memories of the war, for instance: a woman raped by the Russians repeatedly, in the final Russian offensive on Berlin in the last days of the war. This highlights the price women often have to pay in conflicts in which they themselves are not combatants. It appears that his uncle was disturbed and traumatized by the war, and is now 'on the run' from his home country. The cello he plays is used a metaphor for the woman's body which was violated by the Russian troops, and it is through this cello that the uncle seeks to find some kind of redemption. The reference to the Gulf War in the title makes the poet's writing context clear: this poem was also written in response to the Gulf War. Notably, many refer to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in January 1991 as the 'Rape of Kuwait'.