The smartphone alarm jarred me awake every dawn. I spilled out like a tepid glass of water knocked off the nightstand. I would barely scrape myself off the floor, drag myself to the practice room, and start stretching—only then could I truly feel my human body with its arms and legs. Looking back on those […]
Translation
A Nobody
They pass through, and see through us
by Christine Guinard, translated from the Spanish by Susanna Lang
They pass through, and see through us (from Ils passent et nous pensent) tu demandes sous tes pas c’est ton sol ? you ask beneath your feet is this your land? je n’ai pas traversé les Pyrénées je n’ai pas suivi la neige pas à pas sans demeure je n’ai pas demandé au ciel de […]
Rebellion
by Dragana Kršenković Brković, Translated from the Montenegrin by Aleksandra Nikčević Batričević
Dusk was slowly descending over the town. The rain had finally stopped, but the sky was still covered with heavy gray clouds. It was Friday, the last day of November. Even though Maya was cold, she still wandered around persistently. For a while, she walked along the trail by the Yser River. Her gaze wandered […]
Burying the book: Three Poems
by Adrian Alui Gheorghe
Translated from the Romanian by Cristina Savin
Let us bury those who wrote the books.
Let us bury those who read them.
Снег
by Anzhelina Polonskaya, Translated from the Russian by Andrew Wachtel
Shattered Ice by Victor Mogilat (via Pexels) Snow It snowed all winter, sometimes lightly, but mostly heavily, with dry biting flakes, and every day by morning, all the roads were covered. Vera was heading back to Moscow from St. Petersburg on the train. Not moving, she stared out the window at the unpeopled space, […]
Invocación: Poems
by Paloma Chen, Translated from the Spanish by Julia Conner
Furious Stampede Take the knife half mango half blade i die in the dichotomy and the divide bring your ear to […]
Three Poems
by Margarita Losada Vargas, Translated from the Spanish by Maddie Kwasnick
PIETÀ i am asking permission to die a little to tear your membrane to expel you from my uterus you will never suffer the weight of light nor the wounds of a scream you will be my most beloved exile you will be the air that nourishes my garden of […]
Death of the Sea Urchins: Poems
by Nihat Ozdal, Translated from the Turkish by Jeffrey Kahrs and Mete Özel
Twentieth Button I made buttons out of salt particles rippling across the ocean’s evening. Minerals and dried plant were extracted, remnants of volcanoes and forest fires, smoke and acid, neutrons produced by fission, prayers for the easiest way to make rain. You asked me to explain the second process within this clutter I’ve made: often, […]
I Have Forged My Own Man
by Anupam Singh/अनुपम सिंह, translated from the Hindi by Areeb Ahmad
I Have Forged My Own Man (from मैंने गढ़ा है अपना पुरुष, राजकमल प्रकाशन, 2022) Resting an elbow on his thigh, I am smoking a cigar. I have hidden my autumn in his hat. All the heroines are jealous of me for how could I forge my own man. I said—he is not a […]
They Were My Loved Ones
by Imad Kadhum Abdulla, translated from the Arabic by Fatimah Abdulridha
They Were My Loved Ones I am a stranger amongst you. The war has eaten most of my loved ones, and fear has exiled the rest. Because I am lonely, I have mysterious hobbies. I now fish in the busses for the employed single ladies, I sit next to one of them and pretend to […]
