A Journey called Home poems and stories of the new Corkonians A Cork City Council Libraries project for Creative Ireland edited by Paul Casey Published in 2018 by Cork City Libraries for the Clár Éire Ildánach Creative Ireland Programme 2017-2022 in partnership with Ó Bhéal The material in this publication is protected by copyright law. Except as may be permitted by law, no part of the material may be reproduced (including by storage in a retrieval system) or transmitted in any form or by any means, adapted, rented or lent without the written permission of the copyright owners. Applications for permissions should be addressed to the publisher. All rights reserved. Text © 2018 Cover image © 2018 by Jed Niezgoda Hand-drawn map © 2018 Eileen Healy Editing by Paul Casey Printed in Cork by City Print Contents Foreword 1 Kseniia Aksenova My St. Luke’s 5 Sardar Aziz An Arrival John Barimo A Multifaceted Perspective ... Afani Carla Baruffi June Rosalin Blue Three Poems and a Story Marieke Bosman Cork, Bridge-Building City Benjamin Burns Barrack Street Haiku Ariana Caballero I Found a Place Constantyn Calugaru Six Poems Sue Cosgrave At River’s Bend Zsuzsa Emese Csobánka Three Poems and a Story Helen Pamela de Jesus A Place to Call Home Gabriela de Sousa The Harp that once Sang on the Hill Zahra Deschard Ireland is a Poem Joanna Dukkipati You Can’t Con Cork! Silvia Benini Ferretti A Journey called Home & Stefano Ferretti Ayla Goktan Four Poems Mareike Graepel Cork: A Gate, a Hop and some Stories Marie Guillot Goods From Cork, Ireland Hailey Hughes Two Poems Tyler Johnston Victoria's Valkyries Ravnita Joyce Two Stories Marcel Kröner Five Poems Xean Landingin What’s not to Love about Cork? Chimera Lay Two Poems Fiona Looney The Same But Different Ciarán MacArtain Two Poems Asad Mahmud Three Poems Nyaradzo Masunda A Poem and a Story Jacqueline Moreira Two sides of the same Cork Abdiaziz Mussa A Necessary City Contents Arancha Nogueira impressions of Cork without you 1 Stanley Notte Two Poems 5 Xiao Ouyang Three Poems Carmen Palomino A Poem and a Story Sara Charret Pires a love portrayed in words Michael Ray Two Poems Dani Rodriguez Cork & Sky Rudá Untitled Poem Elisa Sabbadin The Change: Journey by Water Luisa Nogales Sánchez The Lee Delta (Cork City) & Victor Iturbe Martínez Barbara Siller The River Lee Leah Miraj Sohotra How Majda Arrived Kerri Sonnenberg Six Poems Ana Špehar Six Poems Gabrielle Şerife Ulubay Never Lost in Cork City Rab Urquhart Three Poems Serge Vanden Berghe Pana Martín Veiga Three Poems Nqobizitha Vella Living in Cork City Jorge Ruiz Villasante My Four Seasons in Cork Veronika Wacker Through my Eyes Cliff Wedgbury Two Stories and a Poem Sylvia Wohlfarth A Prose Poem and Two Stories Maria Wojdylo Kelly Four Poems Tomasz Wrzesień Four Poems Liping Xiong Where is the Rice? Libin Zhang Crosshaven under the Sunset Mirella Yoshida This is the Foreign Rain! Zovi Zoni Luck is Me Photographers Writers’ Biographies Foreword For well over a century, Ireland was a land of emigration. In that period, more people left this country through Cork harbour than through any other port. Today Cork is an outward-looking city; one that welcomes and embraces those from other countries choosing it to make it their home. To celebrate this new diversity, Cork City Council invited people who have moved to Cork to tell us about their experiences of living in the city, via poetry, fiction and prose. A Journey Called Home is a diverse and intriguing selection of what people wrote in response to that invitation. It is, for the most part, bi-lingual; in the writers’ original languages and in an English translation. The book’s title is inspired by a piece by Stefano Ferretti & Silvia Benini Ferretti: “We shared part of the memories we had been discussing and soon everyone had boarded their own Memory Lane train, adding pieces of their own stories about Cork. You can’t stop that train: each person we’ve met and all the things we’ve done just add a little piece to the tracks. Only when you’re on board can you truly realize how wonder- ful your journey has been; this journey we call Home”. The project was devised and carried through from start to finish by the Council’s Library Service, as part of the Creative Ireland programme. It was led by Liam Ronayne, Cork City Librarian and Patricia Looney, Senior Executive Librarian. Patricia took on the project with vision and enthusiasm and made the initial contacts with communities and individuals. Paul Casey, himself a multi- linguist, collated the pieces submitted, advised writers on their pieces and on translation and edited the results. It could be said that every anthology needs a reason to exist. One of the Creative Ireland objectives is to affirm Cork as an Intercultural City. In this collection, our new citizens share their experiences of the city, giving us a unique opportunity to see Cork through the eyes of the people who help to make it a vibrant, interesting and inter- cultural community. 1 Foreword I am excited by this new vibrancy which is such an important component of cultural, social, and economic sustainability and so essential to driving innovation. The diversity of the languages that the stories are written in illustrates the growing number of cultures and nationalities that now call Cork home. Writing in their own languages, the writers say what they wish to say, while opening a door to their own cultures for the rest of us, as they share their Journey Called Home. As Lord Mayor I commend this project which, in a very tangible way, shows a warm welcome to the Europeans, Latin Americans, North Americans, Asians and Africans who now call Cork home. Through their experiences we see a different face to our city and this is a wonderful gift for all of us. Cllr Mick Finn Lord Mayor of Cork A Journey called Home Kseniia Aksenova My St. Luke's 1 The colours of this area consume the setting. Post office green can barely compete with purple of the pharmacy or sparkling red Chinese. To put at ease this burst of paint and light I glance at a hidden spot beyond the pub beyond the knot of shaken streets and tightly friended buildings and heartfelt scraps of farewells at the cross. It's here in the moss, it's here in the loss of stone perspective above the door whose entrance and exit narratives are under question among the moss, the branches of a bush. They push the subtlety of tones. They lean on the innocence of colour. The lilac and bird-cherry little parlour above the mass of meaning of the world. I honour them with the length and depth of a stare. I'm very well aware they rule St Luke’s and they're a fluke. Kseniia Aksenova Мой Сент-Люк 1 Цвета окрестности ее же поглотили. Зелёный почты соревнуется с орущим красным ресторана и фиолетовым аптеки. В прорехах этих яркостей я нахожу спокойный уголок: он там за пабом, за узлом тех улочек и скомканных строений и добрых досвиданий и приветов. Он там во мху, в потерянности перспективы - над аркой, где неясен выход и неясен вход, там мой кустарник. То добавляет красок, то берет невинностью оттенков. Черемухо-сиреневым застенком мира парит над ним же. Цветы ценны своим присутствием над праздным, и правят всем Сент-Люком каждый день. Они лишь тень, и я лишь тень. Но я пою Сент-Люк, пою черемухо-сиреневую благость, что проповедует реальности палитру, порядок, ценность света. Я благодарна городу за это. Kseniia Aksenova I am a fluke as well. My presence here is to carol for this place. The lilac and bird-cherry grace upon us all as they command reality’s palette And teach ordinance And light appreciation. I’m grateful for this city meditation. 2 The lilac and bird cherry tree Climb over walls as a marquee, You can’t foresee That those trees Are as curious as us. And thus you can’t believe they see The same St Luke’s you walk with me: The pub, the church, the post, the bus. They are the neighbours who believe that we are what we have perceived and so they strive to see, to breath to learn about us. So every time you pass them by glance over the street with trees in mind and tell them hi and tell them bye, from pub, and church, and post, and bus. Kseniia Aksenova 2 Над этими стенами сирень и черемуха Собираются в яркий венок. Им все интересно, а нам непривычно, что им так обычен этот Сент-Люк-уголок: и этот собор, и этот почтамт, и этот автобус, и вот этот паб. Они соседи нам, и ждут, что восприятие их друг, и потому стремятся дух сентлюкский изучить и нас с тобой разоблачить. Ты им привет передавай, а может, передай прощай. За тот собор, за тот почтамт, автобус и тот паб. Kseniia Aksenova 3 On a little island in a little country in a little town in a little county with a little hope and while days I counted The City of St Luke’s was my only bounty Bigger than the town in a little county Bigger than the island with a little country Spirit of the place outgrew the mountain The City of St Luke’s was my world astounding All I ever need is in this surrounding All I ever have can’t be more profound and I don’t need a place of my own founding The City of St Luke’s is forever bounding 4 Tomorrow’s Christmas and St Luke’s is opening the doors for couples young and old who took not blood and body, of course, but a little booze, and a little snack, to feel the warmth indoors.