Canadian Multiculturalism Reflected In Poetry

Canadian Multiculturalism Reflected In Poetry It was in the autumn of 2007 when our teacher announced us that at our following meeting we were going to have a special guest, coming from Canada. It raised my attention the fact that our guest was a Romanian born Canadian poet and she was going to share with us her experience as a poet and, moreover, as a citizen in the multicultural Canada. This was how I first heard about Flavia Cosma. She entered our class accompanied by our teacher and by one of her editors, carrying a heavy bag which proved to be crammed with books and told us that books represented her life. My first wonder was to hear her speaking in Romanian, especially after I had been told that she had been living in Canada since 1974. She took care to explain us that she would never cease thinking, writing and loving in Romanian. It appeared to me that tears were going to trickle on her face. This happened each time she was mentioning something about her native country or about her mother tongue, managing to transmit us her feelings. It was even more impressive to find out the circumstances that made her leave her country. Little by little she imparted us her entire story, showing that she was a perfect case to fit in the multicultural Canada. As her life was thoroughly influenced by the social situation of Romania, in a period when she was afraid to make her writings public, Flavia Cosma is eager to promote around the world the policy of the country that offered her the help to become such a renowned poet. She praises Canada for giving her the hope and the confidence in her, as well as for offering her the chance to prove herself and her mother country her real value. At a time when her own country was oppressing her for writing in such an original way, a foreign country helped Flavia to become famous and backed her up almost unconditioned. Actually, the only thing that she had to do was to translate her work in English, which proved to be of great difficulty at the beginning. She went on telling us that her first feelings that she had for Canada were of intense hatred, as she did not know a single grain of English. But Canada was willingly to adapt her as a citizen, and gave her the opportunity to study English and adapt to the Canadian culture. She preferred to leave the compromise that she had to do in Romania for the work that she started to do in Canada. Her work was even more praised abroad than in Romania and Flavia felt extremely lucky to find this, after a couple of years that she had spent in different Refugee Camps. She took pleasure in giving birth to her work and struggled to make it public. After so many years, she says that it was worth, and declares that she was not that courageous as some of her Romanian counterparts were. Many of them ended up in prison or even dead, due to their desire to act different then the others did. She left Romania with the hope for freedom, and she knew that she had nothing to lose, as in her country she had abs olutely no chance to publish her poems. Being out of the country, she heard of the Romanian Revolution and felt a great joy. Canada offered her the possibility of creating The Association of Democracy in Romania. Since its formation, this organization has supported eleven Romanian orphanages, a help that proved to be reciprocal, as it enabled Flavia to resume her relations with Romania. Once again, she was grateful to the Canadian society that roused in her the interest in social themes and social justice. It also motivated her to start the work at some documentaries about the situation of post-communist Romania, the one entitled Romania a Country at the Crossroads receiving The Canadian Scene Prize for Television Documentaries. We were listening carefully to her, and could hardly believe all the hardships she had to fight with in order to achieve her dream, the sweet dream of liberty, as she told us. She took out a couple of books from her bag and handled them with special care. She started to recite to us, and we were more absorbed by her emotions than by her lyrics. Her voice was trembling with thrills at each word, at each verse. It was clear how much the Romanian language meant to her. She had probably noticed our surprise and explained to us that she gets very nervous when she recites her poems in the language they were composed in, because she finds no other language more musical than Romanian itself. Her point of view was strengthened by many foreigners who listened to her reciting in Romanian. She said that they were profoundly impressed by the way the poems sound in her native language and that the fact that she continues to write in Romanian helps her to remain in touch with her mother country. Later on she invited us to read aloud some of her poems. It was surprising how beautiful they appeared in the silence of our classroom. We were told that she received an important Translation Prize for her 47 Poems, a book that appeared with the support of an American English Professor that helped her with translations. The English variant also sounded fine, but it did not manage to touch our souls the way the Romanian version did. Other publications of Flavia Cosma that followed this one were represented by the novel The Fire that Burns Us, whose pages she took out of the country with great risks, the books Wormood Wine and Fata Morgana which also represent publications that appeared abroad. She left our seminar with the promise that she would return soon, and that she would share other information about her literature and, of course, about the Canadian space. The latter theme does not miss from any of her discourses and lectures, as she is a member of a Canadian association that promotes Canadian values abroad. When asked in one interview that I found published in one of the books of my teacher, Flavia Cosma mentioned that the Canadian state is very generous to her for her speaking in the universities about their multicultural policies. Cf. Balaj, (Interviu cu Flavia Cosma, in Rodica Albu, English in Canada. Representations of Language and Identity. 2006, 327-332). The spring of 2008 brought again the Romanian poet to the University of Iasi. This time she delivered a lecture about traditions and tolerance in the Canadian society. She talked to us about the unique experience Canada offers in what concerns the diversity in all fields of culture: language, nationality, religion etc. Flavia was happy to tell us that the Canadian society invites you to bring your contribution to their culture, and not to forget your national values, as the United States do. She also talked to us about the numerous organizations of art and literature that encourage immigrants to develop their talent and make it known over the world. She spoke to us with such emphasis as though she was a Canadian-born person herself. She was also proud to inform us that the nationality that is placed first in Canada in terms of level of schooling is represented by Romanian children. Just as she said in the interview I mentioned above, she feels at home in the plane, between the two de stinations: Canada and Romania. I had a great pleasure to accompany Flavia on a short walk around the city of Iasi. At the Metropolitan Cathedral she asked for an icon with Saint Anthony. She explained to me later that even though she is orthodox, she borrowed this saint from the Canadians, as he offers her great help, especially in the art of creation. For Flavia, the art of creating poetry is given by the Holy Grace, and she is thankful to God for the fact that a poem is sometimes written even before seeing the paper. This happens because Flavia does not write only on paper, but she writes in her thoughts, and she feels that something misses to her if she does not write on a certain day. This proves how great significance poetry and writing in general have for her. She left me in Copou, offering me one of her books, together with her Internet site. She advised me to visit it, to find more things about her and about Canada. I realized how much she loves this country from the simple fact that she also offered me a little red trinket with a maple leaf below and with the inscription Canada. She took such a pleasure when talking about her poetry that made me get closer to her poems and try to understand them. She said that her work is for everybody and that she dislikes being a hermetic poet. As soon as I started to read her lyrics, I also understood her double identity: she writes with the freedom of a foreigner, having a very open horizon, but she does not deny the Romanian soul. There are so many constructions in her poetry that are just untranslatable and even difficult to be given an English counterpart: lumină lină, vajnici duÃ…Å ¸mani, zborul-nezbor and braÃ…Â £ul mlădios are to be found in the poem entitled Anotimpul iubirii- The Season of Love. Flavias poetry abounds in such constructions that pose great difficulties when being translated, for she writes with her Romanian soul. Poems like Cà ¢ntec de seară, Durerea te à ®mbată, Noapte, Cà ¢nd singuratatea, which is a specific Romanian construction, and Se-n volbură vulturii were translated as Song of Evening, The Pain that Intoxicates You, Darkness, When Loneliness and Eagles Are Turning Circles. The poems of Flavia Cosma also abound in entire stanzas that are difficult to be translated, due to the Romanian context: Ah, pasăre, / Dulce te pleacă, / Lin te coboară, / Mamă gingasă, / Mamă năframă, / Peste iedul uitat in cà ¢mp/ de-astă-vară. The English version does not sound that musical, even though it renders the main idea: Ah, bird, / Bow sweet, / Come down calmly, / Gentle mother, / Kerchief mother, / Above the kid forgotten in the field / Since last summer. Another poem that seems not to have found its proper English counterpart is represented by America: E tulbure mierea / Prelinsă din faguri deschiÃ…Å ¸i dimineaÃ…Â £a. / Frate, de ce Ã…Â £i-e palidă faÃ…Â £a?. This poem was translated with the help of Don Wilson: The honey is like mud / Oozing from open honeycombs in the morning. / Brother, why is your face pale?. Besides this sort of poems, Flavia also wrote extraordinary lyrics that had an impressive impact in English: But on the roads of night I goad / The chalky-white buffaloes-for-burden / Circling hills, climbing, descending, / Seeking answers, breathing. This poem is part of the 47 Poems, the book that received the Translation Prize. I singled out Flavias case because I happened to be familiar with it, but, starting from that and from what I have been able to identify as tipycally Canadian, I can imagine a true cultural mosaic of ethnic voices writing between cultures. What I have no way knowing is to what extent these Canadian writers of various origins listen to each other and resonate with each other aesthetic preferences. As I continued to read the poems, I felt that poetry represents for Flavia the only thread that binds her to Romania. Writing poems makes her discover the unknown mysteries and convey them to the readers through her lyrics. A few lines above I made a mistake and I wrote potery instead of poetry. I believe that the only mistake consists of the fact that I missed one t, because this is what Flavia does: just like the potters make real pieces of art out of simple sand and water, she builds up masterpieces out of simple materials, such as words, because when it comes about working there is nothing for Flavia to love more than words.

The Drive-By :: Personal Narrative Writing

The Drive-By Many people have experienced a drive-by shooting before. Some are the victims and others are the people who commit these crimes. Either way, these shootings are very horrifying. You feel your adrenaline rush 100 miles an hour. People who can't run will soon find themselves hopping over gates and hitting roofs tops. The sad truth is that people die as a result of these shootings. Bullets don't carry names. They fly in all directions killing innocent people. I woke up one Sunday morning tired from the night before. My neighbor Sergio called me up to ask me if I would go with him to the car wash in Whittier. I got ready and left my house at about 12 o'clock. As I walked to his house, I noticed that the sun was bright and the sky was clear. "The day is too good to be true," I thought to myself and believed nothing could possibly go wrong. We got to the car wash and washed his car. The day was going fine. Then Sergio asked me if I wanted to go to East L.A. with him. I agreed and went with him. We arrived at his cousin's house and his cousin's friends were all drinking on the sidewalk. I felt strange to be there. I didn't know anyone except Sergio and his cousin. To top it all off, I was in a strange neighborhood with some gangsters that I didn't know. After being there a while, I noticed a grey van passing down the street repeatedly. I did not think much about it since it was not my neighborhood, and Sergio's friend did not pay much attention to them either. All of a sudden, one of Sergio's friends jumped off the hood of a parked car and yelled, "Trucha! Trucha!" (Watch Out!) As he shouted that, I looked up and saw the passenger of the gray van pointing and shooting a gun at me. I felt a tremendous cold chill all over my body, and began to run as fast as I could to the back of the house. All I remember is looking for safety. When the shooting was over, I went to the front and saw Sergio's cousin laying on the ground with his pants full of blood. We quickly got him into Sergio's clean car and drove to the hospital. We were driving much faster than the speed limit and running red lights while I tried to calm Sergio's cousin. The Drive-By :: Personal Narrative Writing The Drive-By Many people have experienced a drive-by shooting before. Some are the victims and others are the people who commit these crimes. Either way, these shootings are very horrifying. You feel your adrenaline rush 100 miles an hour. People who can't run will soon find themselves hopping over gates and hitting roofs tops. The sad truth is that people die as a result of these shootings. Bullets don't carry names. They fly in all directions killing innocent people. I woke up one Sunday morning tired from the night before. My neighbor Sergio called me up to ask me if I would go with him to the car wash in Whittier. I got ready and left my house at about 12 o'clock. As I walked to his house, I noticed that the sun was bright and the sky was clear. "The day is too good to be true," I thought to myself and believed nothing could possibly go wrong. We got to the car wash and washed his car. The day was going fine. Then Sergio asked me if I wanted to go to East L.A. with him. I agreed and went with him. We arrived at his cousin's house and his cousin's friends were all drinking on the sidewalk. I felt strange to be there. I didn't know anyone except Sergio and his cousin. To top it all off, I was in a strange neighborhood with some gangsters that I didn't know. After being there a while, I noticed a grey van passing down the street repeatedly. I did not think much about it since it was not my neighborhood, and Sergio's friend did not pay much attention to them either. All of a sudden, one of Sergio's friends jumped off the hood of a parked car and yelled, "Trucha! Trucha!" (Watch Out!) As he shouted that, I looked up and saw the passenger of the gray van pointing and shooting a gun at me. I felt a tremendous cold chill all over my body, and began to run as fast as I could to the back of the house. All I remember is looking for safety. When the shooting was over, I went to the front and saw Sergio's cousin laying on the ground with his pants full of blood. We quickly got him into Sergio's clean car and drove to the hospital. We were driving much faster than the speed limit and running red lights while I tried to calm Sergio's cousin.

Movie: The Birth of A Nation Essay

Tim Dirk’s review of The Birth of a Nation[1] is one of the most detailed and comprehensive reviews that has encompassed almost all the aspects of this masterpiece. This movie was made in 1915 by the producer/director D. W. Griffith. The story moves in the background of civil war affected America and are manifested in the form of lives of two families Stonemans and the Camerons. The pathos and miseries afflicted by the war are shown with close connection to key historical proceedings i.e. the growth and expansion of Civil War and the origin of the Ku Klux Klan.This film is also manifest   epitomize the historical justification for racial segregation. The movie tried to disperse the notions that Reconstruction was a disaster and African American can never be assimilated into white society. It further propagates the ideas that Ku Klux Klan emerged to restore the dominancy of whites in South that was at stake by uncontainable blacks. The film’s considerate depiction of whites lynching activities and emergence of Ku Klux Klan as messiah affirms the racial discriminations and notion of blaming the blacks for all evils in American society at that time. The Birth of a Nation further explores the two other themes related to post war era i.e. interracial sex and marriage, and the empowerment of blacks. Tim Dirk has analyzed all basic elements of the movie i.e. title, story, plot, narration, characterization, dialogue, motifs etc. Firstly, he takes into account the artistic and thematic aspects of the movies and then provides a brief synopsis of the story and at the end evaluates its technical merits. I agree with his overall verdict about the movies as â€Å"A controversial, explicitly racist, but landmark American film masterpiece† because despite its anti-black, it has introduced certain technical and artistic innovation for the first time in American cinema. Tom Dirk says that these innovations includes usage or ornamented title cards, the close-ups, the use of natural outdoors backgrounds, the wide-angle shot and panoramic long shorts. Director Griffith has further implied the amazing technique of parallels actions in a single sequence for example Gus’ endeavor to rape Flora and Ku Klux Klan salvage of Elsie and Margaret. He picturized the battle scenes in a way that hundreds of extras appeared as thousands. Dirk further pays homage to the work of Billy Bitzer, the cameraman of the movie who introduced the night cinematography with the help of Magnesium flares and the technical effects by camera iris i.e. expansion and contraction of camera’s circular masks. (Dirk, 2006) While analyzing the theme of the movie, he has rightly pointed out that Birth of A Nation is definitely one of the most significant contributions in nurturing cinema’s role as an art form. I concur with his stance The Birth of a Nation portrays some of the most chaotic and turbulent conflicts of American History. Dirk points out that the post civil-war period is picturised with colors of racial discrimination and African American are depicted as the cause of all socio-political and economic problems of the Reconstruction era. Dirk further takes into accounts set of components that must be taken into consideration while making a movie analysis. This set is known as MISE-EN-SCENE and includes Setting and sets, Acting style, costumes and lighting and asserts that in Birth of A Nation, ideological or symbolic information is conveyed through these particular setting. Overall, the review contains all the mandatory information about the story and provides an in-depth analysis of necessary paraphernalia of the movie. But it ignores the characterization by the author and its presentation by the actors and actresses. References Dirk, Tim. The Birth of A Nation (1915) Website:http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html [1] Initially it was released and premiered with the title The Clansman in January, 1915 in California but later on the title was changed to Birth of A Nation.

A Critical Review of the Introduction (pp.xi-xvi) to...

Introduction Franz Cumont’s introduction in Astrology and Religion Among The Greek and Romans, the Dover 1960 edition of the unabridged and unaltered original work published, by G P Putnam in 1912, is aimed at the general historical and theological audience. On reading Franz Cumont introduction it is obvious he is scathing in his comments towards the practise of astrology. Along with his contempt of the continuing growth in the belief of astrology and how, throughout humankind, intellects, academics and ordinary folk continue to show interest in it.1 It will be argued that Franz Cumont is outdated with his thoughts on the decline of astrology. He makes reference to the scientific discovery of the†¦show more content†¦This was difficult, but it was not impossible. 4 Therefore showing how Cumont’s comment; that the planets and their influences made no sense or difference to humanity after this new scientific discovery, can be considered as outdated. Nicholas Campion, author of Prophecy, Cosmology And The new Age Movement: The Extent and Nature of Contemporary Belief In Astrology†, also argues against this theory of the decline of astrology by explaining Patrick Curry’s distinction of a three tiered astrology in Power and Prophecy. A ‘high’ variety of astrology for the academics and Philosophers, a ‘middling’ astrology based on horoscopes cast for individual clients and a third the ‘low’ form of astrology mainly mass-produced chronicles. Campion suggests that Curry demonstrated that only the ‘high’ form of astrology declined and the ‘middling’ astrology dwindled in isolated cases, whereas, the ‘low’ form of astrology continued to grow.5 Illustrating once again that astrology did not necessarily decline or die with the scientific discovery of the heliocentric theory as Cumont suggests. Cumont continues to show his contempt for ancient astrological roots by suggesting that astral mathematics had been wrapped up in ancient primal superstitions and he is astonished it could be linked with intellectual