THANK YOU HILAL KARAHAN AND ALL IN FEMINISTANBUL 2019

FEMINISTANBUL POEM FESTIVAL 2019

Rokiah Binti Hashim
Rokiah Binti Hashim (Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim) (Malaysia)

Rokiah Hashim from Malaysia writes using the name of Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim. She graduated from University of Science in Malaysia in Theatre and Drama, then continued her studies in University of Sydney and obtained Post Graduate Diploma in Translation from Institute of Translations and Books in Malaysia. Starting from 1987 her poems and short stories were published by mainstream literature magazines and newspapers. She is also prolific in film and theatre critics and wrote since 2007 in her column in a major national daily in Malaysia and published a film critic book in 2015 titled Kritikan Filem Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim and some 250 articles. A bi-lingual anthology of her poems titled Catharsis/Katarsis in English and Bahasa Melayu was published in 2015 and Spanish in 2016. Her bi-lingual anthology together with 12 other world peace poets titled News From Strasbourg was published in 2017 in E Book form. All translation into Bahasa Malaysia was done by Siti Ruqaiyah herself. Her bi-lingual second World Peace Poem anthology titled Peace Be Upon You Davos was published by Kultura Snova, Zagreb, Croatia in June 2019.

Her collection of poems were translated and published in Albanian recently by Ditet E Naimit 2019. Her latest bi-lingual book is translations of Shaip Emerllahu poems In Bahasa Melayu and English titled Epal Tetovo/Apples of Tetovo published by Kultura Snova, Zagreb, Croatia. Her works also appeared in numerous other anthologies together with other poets from all over the world and in foreign magazines and newspaper. Her poems were translated into Mandarin, Serbo-Croats, Uzbekistan, Arabic, Mongolian, Spanish , Albanian, Turkish, Russian and French. She attended numerous local poem festivals in Malaysia and all over the world including Peru, Taiwan, Czechoslavakia, Morocco, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Tunisia and Croatia. She is currently living in Balkans, Europe and an associate author with International magazine Diogen Pro Culture for World Peace (USA), Poetrybay(USA), Greenwatch Bangladesh and many others.

Rokiah Hashim writes using the name Siti RuqaiyahHashim was born in Pulau Pinang , Malaysia. She obtained Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Drama and History in 1977, from University of Science, Pulau Pinang. She continued her studies in University of Sydney, Australia in 1984. Andobtained her Post Graduate Diploma in Translation from Institute of Translation and Books, Malaysia with specialization in Literature Translation. She worked as a teacher and lecturer in Institute of Teaching Education for 20 years before retiring early in 1998 to be a full time writer.

She taught in Institute of Translation and Books Malaysia and Academy of Arts and Heritage (ASWARA) in Literature Translations for few years. Starting from 1987her poems and short stories were published by mainstream literature magazines and newspapers. She is also prolific in film and theatre critics and wrote since 2007 in her column ‘Variasi’ in a major national daily in Malaysia and published a film critic book Kritikan Filem Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim in 2015. She also wrote some 250 films and theatre articles.

A bi-lingual anthology of her poems titled ‘Katharsis’ or Catharsis in English and Bahasa Melayu was published in 2015. The English – Spanish version was published in 2016 and launched in Argentina. Her bi-lingual anthology together with 12 other world peace poets in English and Bahasa Melayu titled News From Strasbourg was published in 2017 by a leading digital book publisher PerbadananKota Buku, Malaysia. 20 of her poems are in the anthology and 40 more are from 12 other world poets. All translation into Bahasa Melayu was done by Siti Ruqaiyah herself.

Her second bi-lingual anthology in Bahasa Melayu-English under peace poem series together with 16 other world poets titled Peace Be Upon You Davos was published by Kultura Snova, Zagreb recently. She is now working on a third peace poem series with other world peace poets. It will be published in Zagreb by Kultura Snova in Croatian and English language. Her works also appeared in numerous other anthologies together with other world poets. Her poems were translated into Mandarin, Croatian, Uzbekistan,Arabic, Spanish, French, Japanese, Mongolian, Italian, Macedonian, Russian, Turkish and Albanian. She is a prolific poetry translator and her works appear in many International magazines. She is a member of World Congress of Poets (WCP), Union of Bosnian Artists (UBU) and Perak Creative Association. Her poems won in poem festivals outside Malaysia. Siti Ruqaiyah Hashim is also a peace and anti-war,human rights and environmental activist and is an Associate Author of Diogen.Pro Cultural Magazine published in USA and writes in many international magazines.

AT TIME LIKE THIS

At time like this
I want to hold your hands
hug you tightly
and cry on your shoulder
as loud as possible
and let you cry
on my shoulder as much as you want
because the wave of pain
not decreasing at all
in fact they are more
humiliations after humiliations
thrown at us
and we could only watch
as words are useless

Palestine oh Palestine!
Since young I heard stories of your pain
and we grew up
approaching sunset
with your tears

My man
times and times again
I had said
your pain is my pain
at times like this
my restlessness
are united with yours
and we the defeated ones
inseparable and remained together
the way you want it.

NOT MIRAGES

Your pain
and my pain
are not mirages
of parallel roads of two worlds
but are dotted lines
that linked our souls
and united
in your gibberish
and mine
and there is no amount of verses spilled
that could heal this wound.

BIRCH LEAVES

The birch leaves
green in the beginning
becomes yellowish
dried and then fell to the ground
next season
young fresh shoots grow

That’s how life is
barren unproductive phase
ended with death
but eventually we are reborn
and started stepping forward
not bothering and remembering
all the heartaches and dissapointments
carrying with us
a piece of seed called faith

It’s true what Fowles* said
and we keep walking
and we keep walking
and we keep walking

Cheerio!