Slough Borough Council

Carvings

Poetry from around the world is being hand carved on sections of granite - in the paving, around trees and on the granite plinths and benches.

Throughout the High Street there are 10 poems carved into the granite in languages representing many of the communities who have chosen to make their home in Slough – Welsh, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic, Polish, Caribbean French, Iranian, Hebrew, Mandarin and Turkish.

Each poem is carved in its original language alongside an English translation.

Artist Alec Peever said: “When poets write, their poems are normally printed in books but now the poems have been carved and are a permanent fixture there to be read every day.

“Words often look different from the way they sound and each has its own beauty meaning people are more likely to remember it.

“By carving poems in English and in the original language they can be accurately portrayed and reach a whole new audience in a whole new way.”

The poems

The true-hearted can settle – no matter which land.
A flower wants to bloom, wherever its garden.
Basir Sultan Kazmi – in Urdu

Far far away on a distant planet
There lies a stone unseen untouched
It can be seen only with closed eyes
As you see your loved ones
Amarjit Chandan – Punjabi

my absence clear in the gradually deepening valleys
how many times I fail to echo…
mountain I’ve come here
I’m yours
Mete Özel – Turkish

WE TRAVEL IN THE CARRIAGES OF THE PSALMS, SLEEP IN THE TENT
OF THE PROPHETS
Mahmoud Darwash – Arabic

Metre by Metre, we find our way home,
knowing that for us here on earth, everything
comes and goes, the opening, the closing…
Menna Elfyn – Welsh

we must go with lanterns
ahead of the sun
to beat tracks that lead away
from the dawn of disaster
Odia Ofeimun – English

TURN ASIDE FROM THE PATH, TRAVELLER,
SIT DOWN AMONG MULBERRY TREES AND VINES.
BETWEEN WATER AND SHADE AND THE WHITENESS OF STONE
HERE I LIE, BOY AND KING.
Amir Or – Hebrew

The distant cloud takes to its wings from light.
The flock of the sky birds take to their wings.
I take my wings from rapture.
Mohammad Hoghugi – Iranian but also represents Afghan and Kurdish Farsi

I LIVE IN A SACRED WOUND
I LIVE IN ANCESTORS OF THE IMAGINATION
I LIVE IN AN OBSCURE WANT
I LIVE IN A LONG SILENCE
I LIVE IN AN IRREDEEMABLE THIRST
I LIVE IN A THOUSAND YEAR JOURNEY…
Aime Cesaire – Caribbean French

Whoever lives on will tell us how it was; whoever survives the rest will tell it more precisely.
Piotr Sommer – Polish

I wake when the wild goose cries
a wild goose crying thousands of (miles) away
piercing the darkness of the night’s whirlpool
Yang Lian – Mandarin