Enter Girl With Books
If you’d like to see the city with trees
suddenly walking through it,
visit in the afternoon, the girls
fresh out of school.
With green and white stripes
on their uniforms,
they spread over the earth
like evergreens.
These two girls link arms as they walk,
and look: a row of girls
chained together like plums
in my grandfather’s field.
And there is one girl—
this poem is for her—
standing all alone by a bookshelf.
She fears nothing:
inside her is a wedding
and a funeral.
She stares into the alphabet
the way a cypress tree stares into a cloud.
The way a cloud stares into a cypress tree.
(Translated by Sara Elkamel)
Become a Sustaining Donor This September
Between the reemergence of right-wing red-baiting and Donald Trump’s use of the chilling National Security Presidential Memorandum–7 to criminalize left political organizing, we’re seeing McCarthyism reborn before our eyes.
This assault on democracy cannot be ignored or wished away. Resisting it requires bravery in the face of threats and repression, a steadfast commitment to the truth, and the unwavering belief that we can—and will—overcome this darkness.
We must have an independent media that sets the record straight, unearths corruption and abuses of power, and advances a politics of justice and dignity for all if we’re to win this fight.
That’s why I’m writing to you today. This September, The Nation needs to add 100 monthly donors to sustain our progressive journalism. Your contribution makes the next investigative report, the next truth-speaking column, and the next pathbreaking essay all possible.
I hope you’ll support our work with a recurring donation today. If you donate $10 or more a month, we’ll send you a brand new “Hands Off the Free Press!” sticker to recognise your commitment to our cause. Please, donate today.
Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
