Ένας φορητός παράδεισος

by Roger Robinson, Χαράλαμπος Γιαννακόπουλος (Translator)

Ο τίτλος της συλλογής δηλώνει την υποκείμενη φιλοσοφία που εκφράζεται μέσα από αυτά τα ποιήματα: ότι η επίγεια ευτυχία είναι, ή θα έπρεπε να είναι, εφικτή, αλλά μας την αρνείται ο ρατσισμός, ο μισογυνισμός, η βία και η καταπίεση από την κορυφή της ταξικής πυραμίδας.

Ο Φορητός Παράδεισος δεν αντιπροσωπεύει τη ματαιότητα της συσσώρευσης υλικών αγαθών, αλλά τη χαρά της ανοικτότητας των ανθρώπων, τους τόπους, τις απολαύσεις των αισθήσεων και τις ανταμοιβές από τις τέχνες του λόγου, του ήχου και της εικόνας - εν συντομία μια «ακόρεστη πείνα» για τη ζωή. Τα ποιήματα αποτυπώνουν έναν έντονο θυμό ενάντια στην αδικία, αλλά και την αγάπη του Roger Robinson για τους ανθρώπους, για το χιούμορ τους, για την περιέργειά τους και για τη γενναιοδωρία του πνεύματός τους.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, London, Race, 21st Century, Black Literature, British Literature

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2019

About the author

Roger is a writer and educator who has taught and performed worldwide and is an experienced workshop leader and lecturer on poetry. He was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon. He received commissions from The National Trust, London Open House, BBC, The National Portrait Gallery, V&A, INIVA, MK Gallery and Theatre Royal Stratford East where he also was associate artist. He is an alumni of The Complete Works.

His workshops have been part of a shortlist for the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries and were also a part of the Webby Award winning Barbican’s Can I Have A Word. He was shortlisted for The OCM Bocas Poetry Prize, The Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize and highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize 2013. He has toured extensively with the British Council and is a co-founder of both Spoke Lab and the international writing collective Malika’s Kitchen. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist for King Midas Sound and has also recorded solo albums with Jahtari Records

Reviews

[Tasnim (Reads.and.Reveries) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, weeks before the anniversary of the Grenfell fire tragedy and in the midst of a pandemic. A collection that considers (and in some cases pays tribute to) Grenfell, nurses, slavery, police brutality, Black-Caribbean/ British-ness, I couldn’t have read it at a more relevant time. Robinson has found words for thoughts, feelings and experiences I think so many of us have struggled to process. He’s taken history and seamlessly joined it with the present, walking you over the bridge that connects us to the past, illustrating how we got here and how, in so many ways, little has changed. It is brilliant.

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic, powerful, poignant collection.

[Johanna Lundin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omläsning av denna fenomenala diktsamling om vad nationell identitet egentligen innebär, om rasism, svarthet, tillhörighet och vad ett paradis kan vara samt skilja sig beroende på vilken klass/ras/etnicitet/nationalitet du har. Lika bra som i engelskt original.

[H.A. Leuschel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection moved me so much. I'm in awe when an artist can express complexity with such clarity, honesty and compassion.

'Poems can make minds move freely,
books are a portable paradise.'


Highly recommended!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A London-born Trinidadian, Robinson writes about race and immigration. A first section on the Grenfell Tower fire is particularly powerful; I loved “Blame” and “The Job of Paradise” (“It is the job of Paradise / to comfort those who’ve been left behind. // … It is the job of a clean neat grave / to remind us how to live our days.”) The second section considers the Black experience more widely, from slave ships to the Windrush generation to his own experiences of casual racism (a white woman at a party says, “I love me some black olives”). Part III is a few long monologues, of which I especially liked “Citizen I,” in the voice of an older Caribbean woman lambasting the British government for all it has taken and how little it is willing to give back: “Cheap muscles and blood to build you an empire. / It has never been about our living”. A fourth section mostly responds to individual pieces of music or art, while the fifth reflects on his premature son’s health crisis. There are a handful of standout poems, but on the whole Robinson’s style didn’t charm me, and the collection’s parts don’t cohere.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poet captures the hopelessness of the Grenfell tragedy and the racism under the surface of England. Some of the poems were powerful such as The Missing with the victims of Grenfell Tower. The three Citizen poems also capture modern racism in London.

[Kamila Kunda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The complexity of human experience is what pulsates from the poems by Roger Robinson in his latest collection, awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize, “A Portable Paradise”. Robinson, in crystal clear language, free of trite embellishments, writes about pain, love, rage, injustice, trauma, hope and resilience. These are the poems to read, reread and relive.

This slim collection is divided into five chapters. There are poems on the topic of the victims of the fire at Grenfell Tower in London, on slavery and migration, on being Black and British and of Caribbean heritage, on paintings and music and on balancing between life and death of his prematurely born son. What connects them all is time, history and a certain arbitrariness of human fate. Robinson asks questions as to why things happen they way they do and his poems serve as a testament to his attempts to understand, to accept - when acceptance of unfairness, injustice and suffering, and of neglect of the marginalised throughout history - is incredibly hard.

There is so much love in Robinson, so much will to see beyond the surface, beyond the simplistic images we perceive if we don’t pay close attention. Rewriting of history is impossible, even if we add to it new chapters, previously ignored. But we can use history and learn from it to create a better future. For me, “A Portable Paradise” is, in its essence, an appeal to make the world a better place.

[Δημήτρης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είναι κάποια κείμενα που σε αρπάζουν και σε ταρακουνάνε. Είτε είναι πεζά είτε είναι ποίηση είτε κάτι συνδυαστικό. Αυτό ακριβώς κατάφερε με τη γραφή του ο Roger Robinson.
Ποιήματα σκληρά, ποιήματα τρυφερά, ποιήματα για τη ζωή, τον θάνατο. Ποιήματα που μυρίζουν εξωτικά όπως η Καραϊβική. Ποιήματα που σε χτυπάνε στο πρόσωπο όπως η κοινωνία τη μαύρη κοινότητα με κάθε ευκαιρία.
Διαβάστε το.

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I write prose for a living; sometimes I write prose that evokes a sense of experience, but more often than not I finish up evoking little more than the scientific (broadly defined) analysis involved in problem solving and social interpretation. I remain more than a little in awe of poets whose vision and efficiency of evocation takes us into wonder and fear, beauty and awe and the quiet delight of the everyday. Really good ones see their writing accompanied by an ability to read that work and take us as an audience into that evoked world. My first experience of Roger Robinson’s work was a few years ago when I heard him read, and I was hooked, drawn into his world.

This wonderful collection is chock full of wonder, fear, awe, grief, celebration and a not so quiet fury at the state of the world, written (as the bio-blurb holds) “between London and Trinidad”. The first ¼ of the collection addresses the loss, the crime that is the Grenfell Tower fire – the remembering, the watching, the ghosts that will (or at least should) haunt us for some time. Elsewhere we get commentaries on migration, health care, loss, paradise as a problematic place of security, cultural icons and the banalities of oppression. Robinson’s style is slyly disruptive and subversive, playfully stretching tropes, motifs and imagery into sequences where pieces debate with and feed off each other. This is elegant, beguiling language – evoking, asserting, requiring that our world be put right. All in all, he gives a collection for justice in contemporary Britain.

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

'You all ain’t even playing fake-nice, like those
other murderers. You are all cut-eye and snarls,
all straight jargon, and nothing but the jargon.' — from 'Citizen II'.

RTC later.

'Basquiat placed his painting of a crown on his head. He was part of a five-hundred-year-old soul band call Genealogy. The hoops on each ear are spirit catchers of melody. When he was young he only drank coconut water. His dad recorded the songs he made in kindergarten. He has never had a music lesson except for in dreams. Chords appear to him in colours, so as a youth he could score a summer’s day. He’s been writing the chord progressions for one song for twenty years. One dream music lesson taught him to sing in the key of Seraphim. He can play every instrument on his albums and a few not on his albums. He sings harmony with himself. He keeps things simple. If you have the money, he’s got the music. His tattoos were made with a gramophone record stylus. He was born with golden teeth that he’s gradually replaced one by one with enamel.' — from 'There's Nothing Like This; Facts About Omar (Dedicated to Omar)'.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book.

It would make a great double-bill with Jay Bernard's 'Surge', with which it shares some subject matter - Grenfell in particular. But there's also a great compare and contrast to be had between Philip Larkin's 'For Sidney Bechet' and Robinson's 'Ascension', which are both about great jazz musicians.

It's poetry to make you think and feel. The final lines of 'Grace' almost made me burst into tears over my Subway lunch, which might have been a little awkward. There's poetry here to make you think about other people's lives, about the cruelty of our governments and how we edit our history to ignore empire and race (if you're white.) There's a lot about how Britain looks if you are black. How the world looks and has always looked, 'Citizen III' in particular really hammers that home.

I'd recommend this book but it seems pointless as it has just won the T S Eliot Poetry Prize, which is a far greater recommendation than mine.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Οτι καλύτερο διάβασα φέτος απο ποίηση. Ο Robinson δεν είναι γλυκανάλατος, είναι τραχύς, είναι βαθής και συνάμα πολύ εσωτερικός και ανθρώπινος. Δεν γράφει ποίηση για όλους, πέρνει θέση, γινετε η φωνή εναντίον της καταπιέσης και του ρατσισμού. Τον αγαπησα αμέσως!

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It is the job of Paradise
to comfort those who've been left behind,

to think that all those loved and lost
would live on there like tiny gods.

It is the job of mumbled prayers
to help you calm your hurts and fears.

It is the job of the long black hearse
to show we head to death from birth.

It is the job of a clean neat grave
to remind us how to live our days.

If only I could live my days till death suffice
and make Earth feel like Paradise."

// The Job of Paradise



Jay Bernard's Surge traces a line from the New Cross Fire in 1981 to Grenfell in 2017 which is the central pillar in the first section Robinson's collection. Both collections were nominated for the 2019 T S Eliot Poetry Prize, won eventually by A Portable Paradise. It opens with an image of the rising dead, almost rapturous, but slowly the "charred black tomb" of the tower comes to dominate the foreground amidsts prayers of what could have been or what should be in the "city of the stayed" with "helpless gods of fate".

The second section touches upon slavery and migration, the Windrush generation, Caribbean heritage and Black Britain. The third section is short, outcries of victims against the Windrush scandal evoking a turbulent past—"Every second street name is a shout out to my captors." The fourth pivots to poems on art and artists, with a small series on Hughes' Crow. The last section deals with poems about the premature birth of a son, paeans to "oh sweet sweet life". Paradise deffered, Paradise gained, and hope.



(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memorable, urgent collection, including political poems about the Grenfell Tower tragedy and scandal, and about the Windrush generation, Roger Robinson inhabits a range of different voices, and with tenderness and grief explores human loss, and the profound impact of systemic racism and classism. A spoken-word poet at heart, some of Robinson's work doesn't translate smoothly to the printed page, but his ideas are expansive and full of emotional honesty.

[είναι η θεία Κούλα]

ΚΙ ΑΝ ΛΕΩ ΓΙΑ ΠΑΡΑΔΕΙΣΟ
Τότε μιλάω για τον παππού μου
Κι αν λέω για τον παππού μου
Μιλάω για ιπποδρομίες
Κι αν λέω για ιπποδρομίες
Μιλάω για τον πατέρα μου
Κι αν λέω για τον πατέρα μου
Μιλάω για τα χοντρά πουκάμισα
Κι αν λέω για τα χοντρά πουκάμισα
Μιλάω για διανοούμενους
Κι αν λέω για διανοούμενους
Μιλάω για επαναστάτες
Κι αν λέω για επαναστάτες
Μιλάω για ανεξαρτησία
Κι αν λέω για ανεξαρτησία
Μιλάω για Παράδεισο
Κι αν λέω για Παράδεισο...

[Johanna Lundin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a powerful, beautiful, lyrical and emotional poetry collection. Predominantly about race, class, heritage and the intersection of the three in a way that I had to stop and process what I read over and over again. Love how poetry with so few words can tell so many stories and move me in a way I only thought prose could.

[Carmijn Gerritsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a really interesting look into the experiences of the windrush generation through poetry. Some poems I liked better than others but the general themes and message was the most remarkable part of this collection.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful exploration of the development and actualities of Black British London - weaving personal stories and the quotidian with an unflinching communal consciousness. So many sights, smells, sounds, tears, histories, brutalities and delights bound up in one little volume. The book goes far beyond probing tragedy. It is a rich and joyful testament to the human spirit (especially of those torn by and trapped in legacies and realities of racism, xenophobia and classism). Even the anonymous corpses floating from Grenfell’s burning windows receive dignity.

[Zoë Marriott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart-breaking, heart-lifting. Enraging. Amazing.

[O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Exploring the trauma of others and his own personal fears.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just sat and read this collection all in one go, which isn't something I've done really with poetry collections before. The way Roger Robinson writes about Grenfell is incredible, and intensely moving. He also draws a lot on visual art, his poetry is so vivid to me. I love his work.

[MickPro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving, empathetic, tragic, loving, eye opening, caring, angry, righteous, wonderful.

[Evdoxia Tseliou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Φορητός Παράδεισος

Κι αν μιλάω για Παράδεισο,
τότε μιλάω για τη γιαγιά μου
που μου είπε να τον έχω πάντα
μαζί μου,κρυμμένο, έτσι που κάνεις άλλος
να μην το ξέρει εκτός από μένα.
Έτσι δεν θα μπορούν να σ'τον κλέψουν, είπε.
Κι αν είναι ζόρικη μαζί σου ή ζωή,
χάιδεψε με το δάχτυλο μέσα στην τσέπη σου τις κορυφή γραμμές του,
μύρισε τη μυρωδιά του πεύκου στο μαντήλι σου,
μουρμούρισε τον ύμνο του με χαμηλή φωνή.
Και αν τα ζοριασου είναι αδιακκαι καθημερινά,
πήγαινε σ'ενα άδειο δωμάτιο-σ'ενα ξενοδοχείο,
σ'ενα ξενώνα, σε μια καλύβα-βρες μια λάμπα
και άδειασε τον παράδεισο σου πάνω στο τραπέζι:
την ξανθιά άμμο σου,τους πράσινους λόφους και τα φρέσκα ψάρια.
Φώτισε τα με τη λάμπα σαν μια νέα ελπίδα
πρωινή και μείνε να τα κοιτάς μέχρι να αποκοιμηθείς.

Ένας Φορητός Παράδεισος του
Roger Robinson
Μακάρι να μπνα βάλω παραπάνω από 5 αστέρια... Συγκλονίστικα...

[Shivanee Ramlochan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no part of A Portable Paradise that doesn't feel like a gift to us: a way to signify, you are not alone, not even in the pit of your despair. The work that Roger conceived in his first collection, The Butterfly Hotel, continues so fully, so movingly here: to walk with this work is to always, but always, have a companion in perilous times: one who speaks your language. One who will always try to love you well.

[Χρήστος Γιαννάκενας · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια πολύ δυνατή ποιητική συλλογή που έχει απ' όλα μέσα. Λίγες φορές ένιωσα πως δεν ήμουν το κατάλληλο κοινό, κάποιες άλλες με χτύπησε στις κατάλληλες χορδές συγκίνησης και, τις περισσότερες φορές, με έπιασε απροετοίμαστο με τις σκληρές αλήθειες που ξεστόμιζε χωρίς κόπο, με δυο στίχους όπως τους παρακάτω και αγαπημένους μου: "Πώς γίνεται να σε ικετεύω για μια στέγη, /όταν εσύ ο ίδιος μου έκαψες το σπίτι;"
Μια άξια ανάγνωση για λάτρεις και μη την σύγχρονης ποίησης.

[Jacky Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many things I can say about A Portable Paradise but I'll say this: what is most touching of all is that, after all he has seen and written about, Robinson still believes in paradise.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

And if I speak of Paradise,
then I’m speaking of my grandmother
who told me to carry it always
on my person, concealed, so
no one else would know but me.
That way they can’t steal it, she’d say.
And if life puts you under pressure,
trace its ridges in your pocket,
smell its piney scent on your handkerchief,
hum its anthem under your breath.
And if your stresses are sustained and daily,
get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel,
hostel or hovel – find a lamp
and empty your paradise onto a desk:
your white sands, green hills and fresh fish.
Shine the lamp on it like the fresh hope
of morning, and keep staring at it till you sleep.

[Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll keep this brief, because the way this book of poetry makes me feel is hard to put into words. Its at once personal and universal. Deeply human. It transcends many of the differences that plague our societies these days, while simultaneously being cognizant of them. I shed many tears, I laughed, I tasted indignant anger. Roger Robinson is an extremely talented poet, and I expect that I will revisit many of these poems as needed in life. Some favourites include "Haibun for the Lookers," "Ashes to Fire," "Day Moon," "Ascension," 'The Human Canvas," "Corbeaux," "Midwinter," "Grace," "Prayer," and Part V's "A Portable Paradise." I would recommend this to anyone.

[Irene Lioli · Rating 5 out of 5]

(...) Ο Robinson, ο οποίος δηλώνει πολιτιστικός ακτιβιστής, γράφει επίσης για τον ρατσισμό, για τη βία, για τη φυλή, για τη μνήμη, για τη αδικία, για την ταυτότητα. Γράφει βιωματικά, γράφει για τον εαυτό του, για τον αγώνα του νεογέννητου γιου του να κρατηθεί στη ζωή, για την νοσοκόμα που το τάιζε και το πόνεσε, αλλά γράφει και εκ μέρους των προγόνων του, τους κουβαλάει μέσα στις λέξεις του. Η γραφή του είναι μια διαμαρτυρία, είναι μια κραυγή.(...)


https://inthebooklight.gr/2023/03/26/...

[Optimus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not finished processing, but I feel grateful to my past self for picking up this book.

Robinson's poetry blends visual art and music to created a fully rounded reading experience that touches different senses. This aligns perfectly with the fully rounded voices that come through his poetry; he has an incredible knack for translating real and personal experiences into the kind of prose that makes you stop, think, feel, understand.

I stopped between every poem to digest it, which as an impatient reader, says a lot for how much Robinson can do with his craft.