This is an excerpt from the fourth major section of the book Africana (Gyldendal, 2019). Translations of other chapters can be found in Asymptote, Wilderness House Literary Review, and Delos (University of Florida Press).
Featured Translation
An Afar Triangle
Coral Bracelets
by Umiyuri Katsuyama, translated from the Japanese by Toshiya Kamei
“We were arguing,” she said. Her eyes felt wide. Her palms were drenched in sweat.
“What?” Her boyfriend grabbed her elbow. He felt like fire. She pulled away. And he looked pale to her. Pale as bones. She smelled smoke. “When?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.” The incense singed her nose. Everything was aflame. “Wedding invitations?”
Off the Circuit
by Sara Saadlou, translated from the Persian by Siavash Saadlou
It was clear to me now that I was on a hospital bed, suspended in a coma that teetered between life and death.
Two Poems
by Leanne Ellul, translated from the Maltese by Albert Gatt
“Clam shells, your hands, / your hull’s flare in the palm hold. / Enshrouding bone on bone./ Curved like a whale. / Washed up.”
I’d Rather Not Have to Lie
by Eider Rodríguez, translated from the Spanish by Jeanette Hodgman
The man shook her hand. The woman sat down opposite, with her handbag between her feet, feet which were half-exposed in low-heeled slingbacks. The man looked over the top of his glasses at her. “Are you feeling okay?” “Yes.” “Would you like any water?” “No.” “Tea, coffee…?” “No.” “Esther Salarrue Arribalzaga.” “Yes.” “Okay […]
Ship of Dreams (Sueños del Atlántico)
by Ezequiel Naya, translated from the Spanish by Sam Simon
In a boat that drifts through the South Atlantic, close to what we as Argentines call the Malvinas, and that on English maps they figure as the Falklands, I face the important though sad task of searching for and rescuing the dreams of Argentine soldiers (sometimes we also rescue English dreams) that were lost in […]
2 Poems
by Miguel Avero, translated from the Spanish by Jona Colson
Exemplary You glimpse a slight copy of liquid belly. Talk about the wind, breed waves on each page, breeding breezes on their veneers. You examine that other in the water-logged bookshelf. Give a meticulous detail of tears opting down very tense cheeks. But this one you pose in your hands (leaves fall apart like butterflies […]
I
by Roger Lindo, translated from the Spanish by Matthew Byrne
Pero yo ya no soy yo … [But I am not myself anymore …] – Federico García Lorca, Romance sonámbulo Sometimes I dream I’m waist-deep in a sea of dwarf water lettuce other times, I’m traveling interminably on the highway and my countenance is reflected in the green reflections of what I did […]
Until Our Mouths Hurt
by Aida Moradi Ahani, translated from the Persian by Siavash Saadlou
This is a family photo, with a note on the back that says, Autumn of 1986. The two sitting over on the blanket are my mom and dad, and the two chortling girls of kindergarten age chasing each other on the lawn behind them are me and my sister. Once again, they’d taken us […]
The Craft of Knives
by José Pedro Leite, translated from the Portuguese by Richard Simas
In the middle of winter, I discovered an invincible summer inside me. -Albert Camus (from Part III of “The Invention of Summer”) My idea […]
