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Sonnet by: Israa Abbas

Original poem: “how to say” by Safia Elhillo

Researcher’s method: I got inspired by Safia’s use of the ghazal form, which was a form that started with musicians in 7th century Arabia to sing to that was originally written in different languages such as Arabic, Urdu and others. The idea of why she chose this form is a great expression of dealing with language barrier and speech as Sudanese-American, which I relate to deeply. Taking what is originally written in a native language into English portrays specific emotion of the barrier of speech. I thought to transform this ghazal form into a sonnet rhyme scheme (ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG) by incorporating it with a less traditional aspect of Eurocentric poetry by speaking on important issues in Sudan, which hasn’t been done in a digital form until now. I collected words that rhyme from “how to say” first then used the rest of the words in a way to express importance, while the words switch into different rhyme scheme with each quatrain having its own main idea. I used HTML, CSS and JavaScript codes to form a sonnet generator as a use of coding/literature activism.