Credit: Mohammed Ederis

“In the middle of misery in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State, I delivered the soul of poetry. That’s the resource I find within me. Through writing poetry, I find hope on the edge of the sword, I find courage under the rain of bullets and I find strength in the ocean of fire.”

Mayyu Ali, founder of the notable poetry enterprise “The Art Garden Rohingya“

To fully understand the true horror and despair Rohingya have to go through since many decades it’s definitely by reading their poetry. There is nothing more forceful and vivid than these poems who possess an incredible energy and zest of language and who make this indescribable suffering of the Rohingya people truly visible and comprehensible.

„Raát ki Ráni“ – Night-blooming jasmine – beautiful poem composed and recited by Ro Mehrooz

“Belor Wadha” – Promise of the sun – poem composed and recited by Ro Mehrooz

I want to refer here especially to the remarkable initiative of “The Art Garden Rohingya”, an online platform that started in 2018 and which collects and publishes all significant Rohingya poetry that emerged within the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

I am proud to introduce here some of the most outstanding and striking Rohingya poets to whom I had the privilege to get to know personally and I hope that I will be able to publish more not only of these notable authors but also from many more here in the future.

“There is brilliance in here.”*

John Kinsella, Australian poet

* James Byrne & Shehzar Doja, I am a Rohingya, Poetry from the camps and beyond, Arc Publications Ltd., 2019