There is no Fatwa in this Land

For Taslima Nasrin, in sisterhood
There is no fatwa in this land,
what are you thinking,
this is Europe.
A place without borders and
without internal wrinkles,
without possibilities for asylum and exile.

There is no fatwa in this land –
it is divided into
thousands of small conspiracies,
tiny murders per partes,
which seem like coincidental misfortunes
and sap your blood, drop by drop.

There is no fatwa in this land,
what are you thinking,
this is Europe. No one
foresaw the exit from Eden,
no one is responsible for it. 

There is no fatwa in this land,
it is replaced by countless
cunning tattling friendships,
humiliations at the workplace,
the disabling of every shift,
treading in place
in a thick, impassable ether,
in a treasury where your every move
crosses a laser beam five times.

The mechanisms for
the prevention of breathing multiply,
the windpipe squeezed just enough
for several molecules of oxygen
to enter.

There is no fatwa in this land,
what are you thinking, this is Europe.
A sovereign union 
of the poor and the tycoons,
no more borders, but also no
decency or dignity.

There is no fatwa in this land,
but when you die, we will
cash in your death as well,
sell it five times over
to raise its value.

After death we will make you
immortal, now
you be quiet and
leave us 
your achievements and success.

Did you mention asylum or exile?
Why? There is no fatwa in this land.

© Taja Kramberger, Z roba klifa / From the Edge of a Cliff, CSK, Ljubljana, 2011
© Translation by Špela Drnovšek Zorko, 2012

Form: Free verse

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