Interview with Zan Times, an exiled media organization led by Afghan women.
Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan
زنتایمز: چرا عنوان کتابتان دیسبوند است؟
حسینی: دیسبوند در انگلیسی کلمه عجیبی است و به معنای کتابی است که پاره شده و شیرازهاش از بین رفته یا از هم گسیخته است. دلیل انتخابم این بود که تمام این شعرها درباره زندگی من در کابل و خانوادهام بود؛ اما وقتی سقوط کابل اتفاق افتاد، خانهای که این شعرها را به هم وصل میکرد، شیرازهی آن از هم گسست و از بین رفت
ZT: Why did you choose Disbound for its title?
Hussaini: Disbound is a strange word in English. It refers to a book that has come apart — its binding torn, its spine broken. I chose this title because all of these poems are about my life in Kabul and my family. But when the fall of Kabul happened, the “home” that held these poems together came undone — its binding was broken and lost.
A conversation about translating Afghan literature in the literary journal Asymptote with translator Terézia Klasová. Klasová later translated the titular poem from Disbound into Slovak for the Czech literary magazine Revue Prostor.
“I believe in translation not only to facilitate Afghans’ speaking on their own terms but also to witness it forever altering American and—by extension—all anglophone literature.”