Sakina Hassan
Sakina Hassan is a freelance writer who creates short fiction and poetry in her spare time. Her story ‘The Shoeshop Jinn’ won the 2023 Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction, while ‘Bodies in the Air’ was longlisted for the 2023 Zeenat Haroon Writing Prize and included in their commemorative anthology collection Mightier. Her poetry has been published by The Aleph Review, And Other Poems, and Gully Collective.
Poetry (translation)
Nazm
I will use my words
To send you cylinders of breath
That will not let you lose this fight
As I researched Tehzeeb Haafi for this translation, I came across his Instagram account with over a million followers, a television interview with a famous comedian, and multiple clips of the poet performing for screaming fans who chant his name as though they are at a rock concert instead of a mushaira.
We are not in the business of
Shifting debris or rubble