G, Klara du Plessis and Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi

Klara du Plessis

Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi

Poetry
ISBN-13: 978-1-990293-54-2
$21.95 CDN / $20.95 US | Trade Paperback
September 2023

G is a sound. Phonetically, it is represented as [χ]—and corresponds to خ in the Arabic alphabet—a guttural resonance shared between Afrikaans and Persian. Hinging on this mutual fricative sonically prominent in their respective languages, and a playful inclusion of homonyms across English, Afrikaans, and Persian, Klara du Plessis and Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi composed G collaboratively in a shared Google document, an act of hospitality into their languages. Amplifying common etymologies, but centering communication beyond the delimitation of verbal systems, this work stages a conceptual project of human interconnection through the metaphors of tongue, speech, and poetry as sound. G builds on both poets’ earlier translingual and translation work, including du Plessis’ award-winning Ekke and Mohammadi’s Me, You, Then Snow.

Praise for G

G begins in the throat, where sound is channeled into singular language. But instead of funneling, this is fun. It risks a split lip. du Plessis and Mohammadi “lick the knife of meaning with flaming imprecision.” They flick and flit between Afrikaans and Persian, between Celan and the versioning that makes connections where none were apparent. One poem warns, “you are now where language no longer serves you.” Instead, it swerves you. We end up upended, reconfigured and entirely new.—Sarah Dowling, author of Translingual Poetics