What is your relationship to tea? Do you have specific memories associated with it? Why do you drink tea? Or don’t drink tea? The Hayward Gallery commissioned Anuar Duisenbinov (*note), a Qazaq Poet, to create a poem relating to a Samovar tea sculpture in their exhibition reflecting on the history of tea. He explored these themes by collecting testimonies and personal memories about tea and tea culture from people in the art community in Qazaqstan. He then transformed and complied these testimonies into poems that explain the wide-ranging feelings towards tea in Central Asia.
The full title of the collection is, “A spectral path in the azure or testimonies about tea,” and it begins with a poem by Duisenbinov himself by the same title. From the beginning, we can tell that Duisenbinov is an experienced poet, his words have depth and lyricism, but the incredible thing that does is he turns more “common” or “typical” speech into poetry. For instance, here is a sample from one of the first testimonies:
even when everything around me crumbled
I knew I could grab a hold of my keseshka
or a mug
and wait it out
These words are something that anyone could say, but the way that he split up the lines and the stanzas, makes each word feel more poetic. These testimonies show that anyone can be a poet if they are passionate about what they are writing. Each of these poems comes from a place of emotion regarding tea. Whether it is good or bad it doesn’t matter as long as there is emotion behind it.
The above quote also demonstrates how all of these testimonies are intrinsically tied to the Central Asia culture around tea. I read these poems in English, and you can tell that not everything can be translated perfectly, which makes perfect sense! English does not have a word for the type of cup that is a keseshka, but through reading these poems, we can get a better idea of what the tea culture is like. A keseshka is another word for a piala, which is a type of bowl-like cup without handles.
However, just because all the testimonies are from Central Asians, that does not mean that everyone’s traditions and experiences are the same, at times they completely contradict each other. One of the poems describes their tea routine, how “we would drink out tea black, kara shai, or with milk, sütpen / it is much tastier when milk comes from your own cows,” how their tea routine was when they were younger and drank tea with their family. However, now they live with their friends, and its all the same, “except we are vegans now / and we drink tea without milk.” This poem perfectly encapsulates the tug between the new and old traditions and cultures that a lot of these testimonies deal with. On the opposite side of things, another testimony writes, “milk must always be in the house / whatever happens,” because they always need to drink their tea with milk, even going so far as to bring milk to their friend’s house (maybe their friend is vegan too!). People’s preferences and traditions differ, and people’s lives are a mix of both the old and the new, which “Testimonies of Tea” insightfully captures within its pages.
Some of the “old” that I’m referring to is the history of tea with regards to colonization, which Duisenbinov does an excellent job of acknowledging without it overtaking the significance of tea across the world. In the first poem he says, “was ever a compromise like this offered to the Indians / in whose country the British laid out tea plantations.” The compromise that he refers to is the compromise of the convenience of a tea bag versus loose leaf tea, however it can mean much more than just that. That’s the beauty of poetry, you read it for all the meanings both surface-level and as deep as you want to go. If you want figure out the meaning for yourself, you can read and listen to the poems here.
Through studying in Uzbekistan and Qazaqstan, we had a chance to see the tea culture for ourselves a little bit as well. America does not have the rich tea culture that Central Asia does, but my own tea testimony is that I have loved tea ever since my friend in high school made me a good cup of tea. I would love to be that person for someone else, and we can start by drinking tea like we do at my host family’s house: drinking it for hours and hours while chatting!
*note: If you enjoy Anuar Duisenbinov’s work, here is a link to more of his poems, translated into English by our very own Victoria Thorstensson!
