There is an omnipresent melancholy in the poetry of Gulala Nouri. In her writings, there is a search for a home away from the homeland that always comes up short, rendering her a perpetual stranger. The poet does not revel in that state. On the contrary, Nouri seeks belonging.

The Iraqi poet observes those who live around her who are unburdened by the suffering of estrangement and the trauma of war. Life for them is a “straight line,” she writes, drawing a contrast with her own tumultuous experiences. Those differences highlight the tensions between the poet in the diaspora and her immediate surroundings.

Nouri’s poetry is deeply personal, but that struggle to rid oneself of the agony of being an outsider is not uncommon among immigrants. The human condition she describes is universal despite the uniqueness of her own experiences. Even though sadness is prevalent in her poetry, her writings do not reflect self-pity. She is defiant, almost rebellious. She questions the pain, but as she notes in one of the poems translated below, pain needs no excuse to be present sometimes.