Book of poetry gives detainees a voice

DES MOINES, Iowa - The story behind a book of poetry written by Guantanamo detainees could be as compelling as the poems themselves.

Prisoners, denied pens and paper, wrote some of the poems by scratching verses onto foam cups with pebbles. Other poems were translated into English by linguists with security clearances but no literary credentials.

"It was a long and draining project," said Marc Falkoff, a law professor who represents 18 detainees.

The University of Iowa Press will release Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak on Aug. 15. The volume features 22 poems by 17 detainees.

The compilation grew out of letters from prisoners to Falkoff, a professor at Northern Illinois University who represents one Pakistani and 17 Yemeni detainees. Last year, he received a letter written in verse, prompting him to check with other lawyers and discover that many Guantanamo prisoners were writing poetry.

Falkoff, a former literature professor, hoped that publishing the poetry would provide a fuller understanding of the inmates. But first the work had to endure a gantlet of government censors, who would not release much of the work.

Lawyers initially sent poems written in the detainees' original Arabic and Pashto to a center near Washington, where translators with security clearances produced English versions. Government officials then determined whether the poems could be released in either their original or translated versions.

The Pentagon reviews all documents sent between attorneys and detainees to decide whether to classify the information because of concerns that prisoners will send hidden messages, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler, a Defense Department spokesman. There also were concerns that poems could reveal private details about Guantanamo, such as interrogation tactics or camp routines.

About a dozen lawyers submitted more than 40 prisoner poems. Officials cleared roughly 30 of them, but most only in English. Some of the approved poems were held from the book at the request of prisoners, often out of fear publication would hurt their cases, Falkoff said.

Some poems in the book have been reworked by detainees who have since been released or by language experts who revised translations if the original Arabic or Pashto were available.

Still, the poems could be flawed, said Flagg Miller, an assistant religious-studies professor at the University of California, Davis, who helped rewrite Arabic translations in the book. Although translators are proficient in the language, Miller said they cannot be expected to have the skills to pick up on literary nuances.

The translations may also have suffered from linguists who usually work in rushed environments, he said.

"That creates a huge impediment to the original voices," he said. "That said . . . these poems allow a far more complex picture of these folks than we've had before."

Falkoff said detainees, some of whom have been in custody for five years without a court hearing, turned to poetry to express their frustration and yearning. For many, it was a way to persevere.

"None of these poems were written with the expectation that they would be read perhaps beyond a small circle of their fellow prisoners," he said. "Some of the poems are exceptional, absolutely stunning."