Saffron City Press

I want to dance like her on the crowded floor
I want to writhe in music guiltless as a child
I want eternal blood circulating like a halo
I want to dance like a rising sun in Death Valley 

I do not want to live like a shadow
I refuse to numb my dragon heart 
I do not want to please like a lotus on a pond
I refuse to remain a fingerprint on your thigh 

Remember the dancing ends at midnight
the red snake may bite your neck
while your pomegranate cheeks still burn
and you might never get home 

I want to keep dancing
dance through the war, generations of dark matter
the flame of my feet will burn through
I’ll dance like a raven on a sand dune

اريد ان ارقص مثلها علي الأرض المكتظةاريد ان اتلوى تحت ايقاع الموسيقى بلا ذنوب كطفلةاريد ان يجري الدم العيني في عروقي مثل الهالةاريد ان ارقص مثل الشمس المشرقة في وادي الموتلا 
اريد ان أعيش مثل الظلارفض ان اخدر قلبي
التنينلا اريد إرضاء أحد مثل اللوتس على بركةارفض ان أبقى بصمة أصبع على الفخذتذكر نهايات الرقص في منتصف الليلالافعى الحمراء يمكن ان تلدغ عنقكبينما خداك الرمانية لا تزال تحترقويمكن الا تعود ابدا الى بيتك اريد ان استمر في الرقصارقص خلال الحرب،عبر أجيال من المادة المظلمة لهب قدماي ستحترقسأرقص كغراب على التلال الرملية.

Tanya (Hyonhye) Ko Hong (고현혜) is an internationally published poet, translator, and cultural-curator who champions bilingual poetry and poets. Weaving together two cultures, Tanya’s poetry gives voice to multiple generations of Korean and Korean-American women. She is the author of five books, including The War Still Within (KYSO Flash Press, 2019), a well-researched and vividly imagined sequence of poems based on the experiences of the Korean “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Her poetry appears in Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly (The Feminist Press), the Choson Ilbo, and The Korea Times, among others. She holds an MFA degree from Antioch University, Los Angeles.

In 2024, Tanya was honored by the Saharawi Women’s Forum in Laayoune, Morocco. Tanya’s work has won the Medada Award per l’espressione poetica al Ditët e Naimit International Poetry Festival, Tetovo, the Dritëro Agolli award, at the International Korçare Poetry Festival, Yun Doon-ju Korean-American Literature Award, Ko Won’s 10th Literary Award was a finalist in Frontier’s Chapbook Contest, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Japanese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. In 2015 and 2018, she became the first person to translate and publish Arthur Sze’s poems in Korean. In 2015, her segmented poem, “Comfort Woman,” received an honorable mention from the Women’s National Book Association.

Izza Fartmis is a poet, interpreter, translator and writer who is a native of Casablanca living in Safi. She studied English Literature at Mohammed V University in Rabat. Mrs. Fartmis is a retired English teacher and pedagogical trainer. Izza won the International School Award (ISA) from Hassan II Qualifying School in Safi in 2013. She was the initiator and contributor of a local anthology about Covid-19 including poets and painters of Safi, entitled: ريشة و قلم She is translator of English magazines for Laayoune’s first and second international meeting activities organized by the “forum of the Sahrawi Woman, Development and Democracy”. Izza Fartmis writes in Arabic, French and, mainly, English and has published several books including Fluttering Soul, an English poetry collection, and Together, a collection of essays and short stories on personal experiences for young readers, 2024.