AKALA:We all know thousands and thousands of words. We hear them, we read them, we speak them, every single day. But are we careful enough in the way that we use language? Because, do you know what it takes to change everything we think about a person? Just one word.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Outside the door, lurking in the shadows, 'is a terrorist. Is that the wrong description?' Outside that door, taking shelter in the shadows, 'is a freedom fighter. Although this poem has words like terrorist in it it's not really a poem about terrorism. It's more to do with how you can take one single imageand interpret it in different ways.'
IMTIAZ DHARKER:'I call myself a Scottish, Pakistani, Calvinist Muslim adopted by India and married to Wales.' What I'm trying to do there is to say, "Don't put one word on me,"
IMTIAZ DHARKER:"don't put me in one label or one box."
AKALA:So, is there a right word?
IMTIAZ DHARKER:The right word really is a word that's used with care and thought - with knowledge that the word is precious. Words can be used and are being used every day around us and in our media, to create suspicion. Even of innocent people. 'So it's not that we shouldn't be afraid of, say, of a terrorist'
IMTIAZ DHARKER:'but who is the terrorist, what is the terrorist, how do we know?' How do we know that we're not throwing suspicion on an absolutely innocent person? I haven't got this right.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Outside, waiting in the shadows is a hostile militant.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Are words no more than waving, wavering flags?
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Outside your door, watchful in the shadows,
IMTIAZ DHARKER:'is a guerrilla warrior.'
AKALA:'That's a very interesting line,' "Are words no more than waving, wavering flags?" The alliteration there gives us a certain rhythm you know, but it also gives us a sense that, words are kinda transitory in a way, they're not permanent.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:There's a certain point where words lose their weight. They lose their actual meaning. It's like empty air coming out of your mouth an empty space in a newspaper. And I'd like to bring back the subtlety of words.
ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU:Those are the only words she can use to describe what's happening but…
ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU:there's a dissatisfaction with–
LIONHEART:She's aware of how dehumanising it is. She's aware of the impact of the words.
ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU:That's why there's a constant search to find the right word. Though it's a political piece and it kind of has a journalistic element, it's incredibly sublime.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:God help me, Outside, defying every shadow,
IMTIAZ DHARKER:stands a martyr. I saw his face. No words can help me now. Just outside the door, lost in shadows, is a child who looks like mine.
LIONHEART:'So I think like, when the labels change, her characterisation' of the person behind the door changes as well. So, each label, you think something different.
ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU:Oh your image of the person.
LIONHEART:An image of the person yeah, you don't know what that person is until you hear a different word. You start to associate or disassociate the previous word with the new one.
YOUNG DEACON:Terrorist or freedom fighter. So it's like, the juxtaposition of the two
YOUNG DEACON:it just completely changes the image, completely.
LIONHEART:When I think of terrorists I think, OK, bombs, explosions. I don't think of anything that's safe but, freedom fighter, if my friend was a freedom fighter, I wouldn't mind walking the street with you.
SOPHIA THAKUR:It goes from, like what, terrorist to freedom fighter to hostile militant
SOPHIA THAKUR:to–
YOUNG DEACON:Guerilla warrior.
SOPHIA THAKUR:Guerilla warrior.
YOUNG DEACON:Martyr.
SOPHIA THAKUR:Martyr.And you just end with like a child.
LIONHEART:Innocent.
SOPHIA THAKUR:Innocence, yeah.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:-One word for you. Outside my door,
IMTIAZ DHARKER:his hand too steady, his eyes too hard, is a boy who looks like your son, too.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:I open the door. Come in, I say.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Come in and eat with us. The child steps in and carefully, at my door, takes off his shoes.
AKALA:'This kind of serious tone looking at the brutality of words but then you have this almost realisation when their young face becomes familiar and for me' that was a bit of a revelation, a really, kind of clever twist.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Yes some people misunderstand this poem and think that I'm saying "Be kind to terrorists" but it's not really that. Who is this person who's walking down the street. Is it someone to be suspicious of? Is it someone who's actually like you? Like anyone else like your child.
AKALA:And even then the idea of being outside the door, which seems to represent more than just a door in some way.
IMTIAZ DHARKER:Well the closed door is a moment of shutting out. 'Blocking out the thing that is fearful. Blocking the outside world, blocking the stranger. Because this idea of the stranger, the outsider, is an idea that brings in so many moments of suspicion and fear. So the moment when the door is opened is a moment which'
IMTIAZ DHARKER:'takes away-- a movement away from the fear' away from ignorance, away from the exclusion of other people.
AKALA:Imtiaz Dharker's poem exposes the power of words. They can act as barriers, changing or distorting our view of people 'but they're also our greatest chance for understanding each other better. And any one of us could be standing in that shadow, which is why finding the right word, is so important.'
Hip-hop star Akala meets the poet Imtiaz Dharker to discuss how her poem 'The Right Word' explores the power of language amidst the backdrop of the War on Terror.
Young poets also help Akala breakdown the language and meaning of the poem from the perspective of young people actively engaged in poetry.
This clip is from the series Poetry: Between the Lines.
Teacher Notes
Teacher viewing recommended prior to use in the classroom
This could be used to explore the theme of conflict in poetry, and to highlight context and biography in literature.
Students can be encouraged to develop their own interpretations of poems they have read, and explore and develop their own taste in poetry.
It could also be useful in teaching analysis of poetic technique and form, and encourage fluency with critical terminology and language.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching English Literature.
This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC KS4/GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 in Scotland.