Amit Majmudar: Translators
Translators
These shapely words we yearn to shapeshift,
wordless, wordsmith-smitten,
we must shape now out of sand and syntax,
our hands engulfed in mittens.
The most straightforward this-was-there
tongue-twisters up and slips
the Kansas out from under Dorothy,
the answers off our lips.
Our Blue Mosques made of glue and toothpicks,
our Sacre-Coeurs, of clay,
we reduce the house we reproduce,
and the God inside won’t stay.
At best we bridge and botch it, arch
by arch and verse by verse—
this knock-off aqueduct that carries
not the water but the thirst.
Amit Majmudar
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins