Search Past Posts
Contact me/further info
Email: drennan [at] panix [dot] com
Articles: Articles, conference and journal papers, as well as PDFs of some of the content here, etc. can be found at Academia.edu, until I find a better place to aggregate it all.
Category Archives: literary
دانيال، ابن بهيجة: رسالة إلى لبنان
ترجمة: هلا قمبريس لإنجليزية الأصلية: Daniel, Ibn Bahija أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ فَذَٰلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُّ الْيَتِيمَ. الماعون، ٢-١: ١٠٧ لا نزال نحن المنبوذين، شظايا طردت من الجسد. جسمنا يحيطُ بنا، ويحتوينا، فيطردنا؛ ثم يعود إلى حالة «كما لو» لم نوجد. … Continue reading
Posted in activism, literary, resistance
Tagged فلسطين, لبنان, الاتجار, التبني, سوريا
Leave a comment
إذا رجع ابني | Should my son come back…
[These are the words of the mother of one of the disappeared during the Lebanese civil war. Source unknown; contributed by Zeina Allouche. Further coming full circle: Above the communal crypt of my mother’s final resting place was a mirror … Continue reading
Daniel, Ibn Bahija: An Open Letter to Lebanon.
Seest thou one who denies the Reckoning? Then such is he who harshly repulses the orphan…. —The Small Kindnesses, 107:1–3 النسخة العربية: دانيال، ابن بهيجة: رسالة إلى لبنان We remain the repulsed, splinters, expelled from the body; the corpus … Continue reading
حبل صرّة | Umbilical Cord (theater performance)
Badael/Alternatives presents: حبل صرّة | Umbilical Cord Testimonies from the world of forced separation. After more than a century, the wars are still going on. Featuring the photography of Samer Mohdad.
انا من هناك—I am of that place.
A poem by the Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwich (محمود درويش). Translation is mine.
On the nightmare of adoption reunion.
An adoptive parent in the United Kingdom recently described the potential reunion of the children temporarily in his care with their parents as his “worst nightmare”. This was like a kick in the gut. Because I feel that my own … Continue reading
Edgar Allan Poe: Disinherited adoptee
I came across this in a tiny book published in 1905, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume II, handed down to me by my father. Published by the New Century Library in New York, the book starts with an … Continue reading
Posted in history, literary
2 Comments
A Lebanese proverb: On adoption.
I came across a Lebanese proverb: .إلي ما بيربى ع سفرة أبوه ما بيشبع Translation: “He who is not brought up at his father’s table shall not be satisfied.” Note: Reference to the hard life which orphans and adopted children … Continue reading
September 11, 2013: In James Baldwin’s words
This passage is from The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin; first published in 1962.
Posted in literary
2 Comments
An anti-poem on anti-adoption.
In the world of adoption there would seem to be a spectrum of potential caregivers. The spectrum ranges from one pole focused on the needs of the child to the other pole focused on the needs of the parent(s). On … Continue reading
Posted in literary
23 Comments