An English poem by Professor Miwa Ota of the Faculty of Letters, titled “A Declaration of a <>> for Solidarity with Afghan Poets,” has been included alongside its Italian translation in Sinfonia Per la Pace (Symphony for Peace), an anthology edited by Giorgia Pietropaoli and published by All Around.
The international movement behind this release began in 2023, when Afghan poet Somaia Ramish, exiled in the Netherlands, called upon poets around the world to express solidarity in response to the Taliban regime’s ban on poetry. The poems gathered through this initiative were first published in Japan in the anthology No Jail Can Confine Your Poem (Design Egg Inc.; first edition in 2023, revised and expanded second edition in 2024; available in the Chuo University Library Collection). Subsequently, French and Dutch editions were also published. The newly released Italian edition includes works by three Japanese poets: Miwa Ota, Akira Okawada, and Koichi Uematsu.
For those who may feel pessimistic that such literary movements cannot bring an end to the gender apartheid imposed by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, please consider the following two excerpts:
"Sinfonia Per la Pace is a remarkably universal work. The voices brought together here speak not only about Afghanistan, but about every place where power attempts to reduce human beings to silence. Poetry emerges as a form of ethical resistance, a ‘last line of defense’ capable of confronting violence without reproducing its language. In this sense, this book does more than denounce; it helps rebuild. Through words, it repairs fragmented pieces of a wounded humanity."
"This book urges us to abandon indifference, inviting these words to resonate within our hearts and encouraging us to discover ourselves within the stories told. For every voice that resists brings a ray of light into the darkness, and within that space, our shared human potential is born."
(https://www.ungp.it/ungp17/Pagine/NOTIZIA.asp?ID=1811)
The excerpts above are translated from an article published on April 14, 2026, by the UNGP (L'Unione Nazionale dei Giornalisti Pensionati / National Union of Retired Journalists) regarding the anthology.
This literary movement invites us to reflect on fundamental questions: Why do we study language and literature at university? What can poetry do?
