In addition to the ten writers selected for printed postcards (see below) twenty-four others, Scottish PEN members and members of the Sighthill IWG, have written messages for the project. The last four to be selected for this monthly feature are Fardos Hassan, Waa Shahia Sharif, Hanaa and lastly Rays Geele, for the fourth time. You can read all 24 messages by clicking on the file below labelled postcards_for_web1.

Fardos Hassan
I lost my family and my friends and the social group. I lost my happiness. Always when I saw my friends we had a laugh but here it is not the same. I miss Somalian food and the weather.

Waa Shahia Sharif
I miss my brothers and sisters, my father and my mother. I have lost my self-respect and home. I have the same body but I don't have friends or home or anything. I am feeling too much about my sweet home.

Hanaa

Peace be with you. I want to tell you how much I miss my homeland: how we dress in our traditional dresses, how we dance our traditional dances with the msondo drum and the ndurenge drum. Here we have none of that. I remember how we used to go to the farm and gather the harvest. I miss that a lot because here the food is not fresh. All that happiness and joy. I miss it so much. But that is life.

Rays Geele

A long time ago the poet said to the Somalian people, 'brothers and sisters, you think you do not need each other but without each other you will have no wealth and will end up in the cemetery'.

Ten printed postcards

SOMALI

Leaving There, Coming Here

I left the hurt behind me,
A black woman under Somalia's sun
And came here to be called black
For the meanest of reasons,
My joints aching now in the cold
Where no-one knows me or seems to care.

Somali original by Basra Ali Sharif, English version by Jim Aitken. This card has now sold out.

HOME IS…
Where they say the heart is
Or maybe where the hurt is
Which is why many move home
To be where hearts feel secure.

Jim Aitken This card has now sold out

ARABIC

Exile

Mum, Dad, Sisters forsaken in sorrow
Husband and I face a strange tomorrow
Lonesome in Glasgow my love I send
To my missed family and you, my friend
Our last exchange in anguish hurled
The first time, weeping, I left my world.

Arabic original by Maya Mohammed, English version by Mary McCabe

1496: the law
Then cam parish schools for aw
Auncient colleges embracin
Rich and middlin, Jew and Tim
Flingin wide the learnin door
Gaudeamus igitur!

Mary McCabe

KURDISH

In The Name of Allah

To you, most beautiful mother, I send
the feelings deepest in my heart,
to share with father, brother, sisters, friends;
ten long years, and a river's width of memories,
my tears always flowing the distance between us

Kurdish original by Hoda, English version by Susie Maguire

a cup of kindness

the kettle's steam
fogs the window,
turns the sunlight
white, like the skin
beneath your chin
soon we'll drink our
tea, together again

Susie Maguire

SWAHILI

Yearning

Born aff Somalia's shores,
A miss the Indian Ocean's saund beaches,
fresh food fae wir wee ferms, fish fae the sea.
Weddins naethin like hame.
Nae Kirumbizi, nae Msondo, naethin.
Hou A miss sittin ootside,
fresh breezes, roastin corn, swappin views.

Swahili original by Khadija, Scots version by Liz Niven. This card has now sold out.

Wir Lan

This is wir lan trig an trim,
welcomin hearth for folk comin in.
This is wir lan hairtie an hale,
smeddum tae withstaun onie gale.

Liz Niven This card has now sold out

TAMIL

Ten years ago
I left the heat
of Sri Lanka
for the cold of Scotland.
Left fresh food behind
for fried fare.
I miss my country!

Tamil original by Kalaranjini Uruthiralingam
English version by Harry D Watson

Scotland is
an accident of birth,
the place
where I happened
to be.

Harry D Watson

To see images of the postcards click on the icons below. To read the other postcards click on the file below labelled labelled postcards_for_web1.