Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi poet who exiled to America from her homeland. She is one of those poets who have been greatly influenced by Iraq- Iran war. This influence is reflected in her poems due to which she is also acknowledged among the war generation in the literature world. She has also experienced the consequences of the invasion of Kuwait and desert storm along with her fellow countrymen. In response to the criticism, she published an article in the Baghdad Observer, “reminding those critics that there might be no post-war generation, as the war seem be to be contiguous. It was an ironic article, in which I objected to the whole situation. I had some trouble as a result: an official came to my office at the newspaper and asked me for further explanation. But, at the time, the managing editor supported me and the case ended with a warning to “be careful what you write”. Dunya’s work is mainly influenced by both Plato and Socrates. She has been successful in writing numerous books including Dairy of a Wave outside the Sea, The Iraqi Night, and Fifteen Iraqi Poets. Most of her works are being translated to different languages. However, The War Works Hard was her first published book in English. She was triumphant in winning the Arab American Book Award for Poetry for the same book. In The War Works Hard, Dunya clearly speaks a ‘war language’. This paper discusses the themes of war, loss, exile, and love in Dunya’s groundbreaking book.
The theme of her poetry is mainly focused on the contemporary events in Iraq during the Gulf War. However, her poems take different dimensions to principally reveal the human suffering. In particular, this book scrutinizes the themes of war, life, and love. She describes war from the perspective of war-makers - the leaders. In addition, she excellently portrays the effects of war on the Iraqi people. Also, she talks about love and affection hidden inside the horrible war. She has brilliantly described the situations during the war and how the warfare affects innocent people who commit no sin to deserve to go through the brutality.
She also presents a great and mesmerizing description of the Iraq war and the subsequent damages. Dunya has been able to present a vivid picture of the destruction caused by war and her unforgettable experiences. For example, she asserts that death was the good equalizer in a land where war had no mercy. By employing a sarcastic manner, she explains how people may attain benefits from this horrible war. She says, “It inspires tyrants, to deliver long speeches, awards medals to generals and themes to poets”. The horrible war never stopped neither in the morning nor at night. For the same reason, it taught the lovers to write love letters and taught women to wait for their men. It allowed reporters to fill up their newspapers with the new events of war. At the same time, it allowed constructors to build new houses for those who lost their families. Such consequences are acceptable for horrible leaders and make them content seeing people suffer. Sarcastically, she makes people think how hard ‘war’ works but no one is grateful. In her poems, Dunya makes readers think of a world of humanity and mercy from the remnants of the explosions and destruction of the war. She does so by providing extremely real-life descriptions of the war scenes. For instance, the Bag of Bones describes the love of a lucky Iraqi woman who found her lover’s bones in a bag between other hundreds of bones’ bags. The reader can only shiver considering the pain described by Dunya as the woman looks at her lover’s skull and thinks of his facial features. The details clutch the readers’ hearts when Dunya describes “a nose/ that never knew clean air/ a mouth, open like a chasm, was not like that when he kissed her”. Later, Dunya raises numerous questions asking about the sins of the people to deserve such ugly ends. There is no doubt that the poet’s simplicity in writing the verses gave her style a distinctive and interesting touch.
Dunya’s poem, I was in a Hurry, is a great example to understand the theme of loss. In this poem, she expresses the loss of her homeland. Through simple language, she offers crystal clear images of the war and its cruelty. The poem starts as, “Yesterday I lost a country. I was in a hurry, and didn’t notice when it fell from me”. She goes on and appeals Inanna, the God of Love, in her poem “Inanna”. She talks to him about a part of her country history till this age where she is watching the new generation of her country through the Internet. She tells him how all the houses of her city exist no more. She tells him about the beauty of her city, the noise of people, the trees, saying:
“Here, sometime ago,
someone was asking for help
shortly before his death.
Houses were still here
with their roofs,
people,
and noise.
Palm trees
were about to whisper something to me
before they were beheaded”.
Her expressions and details concerning the loss of Iraqi people are absolutely heart-wrenching when she talks about the loss of their homes, loved ones, and their lives. Furthermore, she describes males as soldiers fighting in an extremely horrible way. Similarly, she talks about the emotion of women who just watch their country collapse before their eyes. Thus, the theme of loss in Dunya’s poems is more focused on women’s emotions.
Dunya expresses the theme of exile by telling the readers about her immigration from her homeland to America seeking a safe place. She has written many poems regarding her exile from Iraq. America is one of the many famous poems in which she requests America to not ask her about people, places, and faces. She demands to let het meet with her lover. Dunya talks about her dead father and how she wished to come to America with him. In the end, she expresses her grief that now as she is in America,
“And now, America, now
I came to you without my father.”
As far as the theme of love is concerned, Dunya has written different types of poems. However, it looks like the ghost of war exists even in her love poems. In most of her love poems, one can easily notice the feelings of missing someone, long distance, wait, and nostalgia. In The New Year, she simply expresses her feelings of loneliness and love for her loved one. It goes on:
“There is a knock at the door.
How disappointing
It is the New Year and not you”.
On the other hand, the same feelings are expressed in the poem, America. She writes about the distance caused by the long river separating her from her loved one. She states,
“It has been a long time,
we are two distant, rippling shores
and the river wriggles between us
like a well-cooked fish”.
Some of Arabic critics of the Arab literature assert that the love poems of Dunya are not impactful for Arab readers. According to a critic, Hussain Hamza, “If Dunya didn’t write anything except her poem “The War Works Hard” then that’s will be enough to save her name in the reader mind, by her use of the lyric and the eloquence she used in her poem”.
In the conclusion, Dunya describes the love inside the ugly war. Her poems are inspired from the Arabic and the English literature. The use of formal Arabic language demonstrates this influence clearly. I think what makes her poems distinctive is the Arabic and English literature and her description of the scenes from the specific moments in everyday life. She expresses a big issue when she talks about the war and what it left behind - the damages, the death, the hate, and the sad feelings inside everyone. She talks about the war in cold emotion by using sarcastic style in some poems. I think she has the capability of remain in the readers’ mind through her firmed writing. Likewise, she describes the streets, trees, the air, the blood, the walk of the people, and their feelings in an absolutely believable manner. It makes the reader imagine everything in front of him. For example, she speaks about the mother and how she deposited her son who ended in the prison in her poem, The Prison. It is like one is receiving the news of the Iraqi war from the poems by her specific descriptions. Her poetry works like eyes for her readers to know the situations of Baghdad during that time.
