Aria Aber is a German poet born to Afghan refugees. She published the poetry collection Hard Damage in 2019, for which she won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. She was awarded the position of Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. Her work has featured in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Poetry Review, and other publications.
‘Gardens of Babur, Kabul’ by Aria Aber concerns the gardens constructed by the Mughal emperor Babur in Kabul, Afghanistan. The ramification of the natural beauty into the physical desire of the speaker is the essence of the poem.