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A review by theliteraryteapot
Auschwitz est mon manteau et autres chants tsiganes by Ceija Stojka
dark
sad
fast-paced
3.5
According to the publisher, Ceija Stojka is the first Romani woman to have talked and written about the Porajmos (the genocide during ww2). It makes me happy to see a publishing house not only publishing such an important text, a testimony of a history that has been -unfortunately still is- ignored, but also to see how deeply the publishers care about Ceija's work and memory.
As both someone who loves poetry and someone who comes from a part-Romani family, I couldn't wait to read this book. I was a bit scared I wouldn't like this style of poetic writing and it turns out I did enjoy most of the poems, as dark and emotional as they are, as contemporary as they are. I can't read German so I read only the French translation and obviously can't judge the translation work here, but I think it's quite accessible enough to understand what the poetess wanted to convey. I do think I read the collection a bit too fast but I know I'll come back to it in the future.
As both someone who loves poetry and someone who comes from a part-Romani family, I couldn't wait to read this book. I was a bit scared I wouldn't like this style of poetic writing and it turns out I did enjoy most of the poems, as dark and emotional as they are, as contemporary as they are. I can't read German so I read only the French translation and obviously can't judge the translation work here, but I think it's quite accessible enough to understand what the poetess wanted to convey. I do think I read the collection a bit too fast but I know I'll come back to it in the future.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Deportation