#8 / SOMETIMES IT IS POETRY WE NEED

Welcome to issue eight of The Attention Span Newsletter by me, Canan “Ja’anan” Marasligil. I’m a writer, a literary translator, an artist and a curator of cultural programmes based in Amsterdam.

Every other week, I take the time to reflect and offer a glimpse of how I see and feel the world through the lens of culture, art, translation, poetry and literature. Each issue has a short essay or some thoughts, a nerdy look at translation, a page from one of my notebooks, a list of things to read, watch or listen to, and a highlight from my archives.

If you prefer an audio experience, you can listen to me reading the newsletter to you. You can also support my work via Patreon.

Thank you for your presence and attention!

NO AN ESSAY BUT A POEM

I miss my grandmother.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about grief, death, love, about rituals. But I don’t have the heart and mind to write an essay worthy of these themes and what they mean to me now. Instead, I want to present you with a poem I wrote a few years ago, when my grandmother was still alive. Reading it now, it aches. It’s like scratching an open wound. Maybe that is what poetry is about.

tongue and lips

my grandmother wears a Rolling Stones T-shirt when she prays
five times a day, every day
her knees are weak

she can’t move the way
the sacred book adjures her to
seated, she still prays
five times a day, every day
the fragility of her body
feeds
the strength of her mind
when she prays
five times a day, every day
my grandmother wears a Rolling Stones T-shirt when she prays
when she reads – in her pajamas
she likes to read fiction in bed
every night
she prefers her beer cold
she doesn’t like raki
wine, sometimes
we drink a Kriek on a terrace
it is summer, but not hot
in Brussels
i have a job interview the next day
i will pray, she says, sipping on her glass
we go home
my grandmother prays
in her Rolling Stones T-shirt
the beads slip through her fingers
one by one
she turns to me
and smiles
in her Rolling Stones T-shirt

ON TRANSLATION

I want to share a song I have listened to on repeat in the past, called özledim by Candan Erçetin (you can listen to it on YouTube). It is a Bosnian tune from the film Gori Vatra (the fire is burning). The song is in Turkish and the title comes from the verb “özlemek” which means “to miss”, as in to miss someone or something. “özledim” is the first person: “I miss”, it can also be translated as “missing you” or “I miss you” or “I miss it”. In this case I would translate it as: “longing” or “yearning”.

One lyric and the sound of the saz accompanying it really gets to me: “çaremiz yok hasreti sevdiğim”. Basically, she sings to her beloved that there is no way out of this longing. “We have no choice but to love this longing (or yearning)”, it may also be “we have no choice but to long (or yearn) for our (impossible) love”. Is she in love with the longing itself or with her beloved, though? In my attempt, I will go for: “We are doomed to longing, my love.”

LISTENING, WATCHING, READING

Listen: This one is for those of you who can understand French. I always love listening to the radio, and France Culture is one of my go-to, especially when I want to listen to documentary series or interviews. One of the programmes I love is à voix nue which focuses on a new figure every week, interviewed all week long (5 episodes) with each episode highlighting a period of their lives. A recent re-release from their archives (from 1992) was of artist Niki de Saint Phalle. First episode starts here.

Read: The British Library in London celebrated its 50th anniversary on 1 July 2023 (I honestly thought it was a centuries-old institution). This report exploring the British Library’s history, mission and work takes us behind the scenes. I find it fascinating!

Watch: a 4-minute-long documentary on 93-year-old artist Dorothea Rockburne in her New York studio. This short film is part of a documentary series by Limelight that follows the lives of different New Yorkers. I came across it via an Instagram ad (one of those moments when you regain faith in the “social” of social media). The channel is the creation of 24-year-old documentary filmmaker, Josh Charow. All films are made by Josh and a small crew of friends willing to lend a hand on the projects.

A PAGE FROM ONE OF MY NOTEBOOKS

FROM THE ARCHIVES

PODCAST

🎙️ an audio version of the attention span newsletter is available on your favourite podcast app: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast…or to listen on the attention span website.

ABOUT

Canan “Ja’anan” Marasligil (she/they) is a multilingual writer, artist, literary translator, performer, editor, podcaster and cultural programmes curator based in Amsterdam. She established The Attention Span website and its newsletter to publish their work independently: making the time to reflect, analyse and imagine.

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