Burning Roses in My Garden

Have I not, having kept a man for years, learnt that it's/ like raising a snake?/ So many animals on this earth, why keep a man of all things?' writes one of the world's most celebrated writers, Taslima Nasrin, in her first-ever comprehensive collection of poetry translated from the original Bangla into English.

The poems get to the heart of being the other in exile, justifying one's place in a terrifying world. They praise the comfort and critique the cruelty of a loved one. In these are loneliness, sorrow, and at times, exaltation.

Relying almost entirely upon the free verse form, these poems carry a diction which is at once both gentle and fierce, revealing the experiences of one woman while defining the existence of so many generations of women throughout time, and around the world.

Introduction xi
1. Vengeance 1
2. The Last Kiss 3
3. A Respectable Notice 6
4. For a Non-Lover 10
5. A Bouquet of Scarlet Envy 13
6. If You Remember, Freedom 17
7. Relationship with a Cat 19
8. On Love 21
9. Alone and Living 24
10. (In)difference 26
11. How Beautiful the Moon Is 27
12. If You Want to Leave 28
13. Birthday Blues 29
14. At Night 30
15. Age 31
16. The Boat 32
17. Many Years, and Death 33
18. You, Aranya 34
19. Surrey Dreams 40
20. Night Song 41
21. Body Song 42
22. Vibration Song 43
23. Delirium Song 44
24. Distance Song 45
25. Self-Song 46
26. Character 47
27. Run! Run! 48
28. Divided 49
29. The Boundary 50
30. The Wheel 51
31. Acquaintance 53
32. Happy Marriage 54
33. Border 56
34. With a Bad Dream Yesterday 58
35. The Fault of Loneliness 60
36. Body Theory 61
37. At the Back of Progress 63
38. Aggression 66
39. Something or Other 67
40. Another Life 68
41. Fire and Husband 70
42. Eve, Oh Eve 71
43. Things Cheaply Had 73
44. Shame, 7 December 1992 74
45. Mosque Temple 76
46. Noorjahan 77
47. Cannonade 79
48. If You’re in Love, Please Go On . . . 80
49. A Year Spent in Love 82
50. From Country to Carnation 84
51. Those Lips, That Tongue 86
52. Love Unfurled 88
53. Walking through This Life and into Death 89
54. Go Girl! 94
55. Floating on Water 96
56. The Room in Which I Am Forced 97
57. Terror 100
58. We 102
59. Living for Lies 104
60. The Unrung Ring 106
61. Girl from Switzerland 107
62. Garment Girls 109
63. Shame in the Year 2000 111
64. Shame in the Year 2002 112
65. Not a Poem 113
66. America 115
67. To Live 117
68. No Man’s Land 118
69. Dry Lovers from Winter Trees 120
70. Time 122
71. Soil 123
72. A Few Transparent Years 125
73. In Silence Perpetual, the Animal 126
74. Fire 128
75. Tale of Letters 130
76. Threshold, Just before Midnight 131
77. Similar Difference 132
78. So Let Them Rule the World! 134
79. Self-Portrait 136
80. The Poisoned Woman 138
81. A Poem with a Lotus Inside 139
82. Wedding 140
83. Hood 141
84. Mother’s Story 142
85. Gift Me Your Absence 147
86. The Cycle of Loneliness 149
87. Curse 151
88. You Are There Even When You Are Not 152
89. To Me My Country Now 153
90. Miserable Ma 155
91. No More Cooking 157
92. Flower 158
93. Am I Not to Have a Country of My Own? 160
94. A Letter to My Mother 162
95. Departure, Departure 164
96. A Passion for Solitude 165
97. Surely One Day 167
98. Forgetful 171
99. The Wrong Person 173
100. Corona Had Once Kissed Me 175
101. Shackle 179
102. Upset 181
103. Poetry 182
Acknowledgements 185