NIDA YOUNIS

Dear Phillippa,

Thank you doesn’t begin to express the depth of my gratitude for your review “ukuphelezela and Nida Younis’ Two Bodies/Zwei Körper” in herri. Reading your words felt like entering a space both intimate and expansive – you have read beyond the surface, into the wound, the memory, the moral weight of what it means to live, to witness, to refuse complacency.

Your exploration of grief, of the clockwork biology of oppression, the tension between political horror and soulful poesis, resonates profoundly. I am especially moved by how you draw connections – between artist and viewer, between personal loss and collective suffering, between the invisible wound and the visible truth. Your engagement with the images, the poems, the visual art, the organelle as metaphor – all of it carries sincerity, rigor, compassion.

You have honored the work not only by interpreting it, but by accompanying it – by showing that poetry isn’t just text on a page, but a living, breathing summons to remember, to mourn, to care. It is rare and precious that someone can hold both critique and tenderness so firmly in hand.

This is a bible for me … I will read a hundred times, translate it and publish it in Arabic to a wide spectrum of intellectuals, if I am allowed to. Pls. tell me if I can make this possible. 

Thank you for your insight, your craft, and above all, your humanity. Your review strengthens the resonance of this work. It is a gift.

With deep respect and gratitude,
Nida Younis