She sets out the treasures and the bric-a-brac of her life, piece by piece, on top of a thick cardboard box in which lurks the lukewarm dampness of a dense December fog…
Translation
A Bargain by Bojan Babić
An Afar Triangle by Dane Thomas Boberg
Translated from Danish by Peter Sean Woltemade
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).
Coral Bracelets by Umiyuri Katsuyama
Translated From 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 Persian by Siavash Saadlou
I’ve lived three times, and I don’t prefer any of my lives over the other. Life has always been in progress in the circuit around which I’ve been traveling. The circuit doesn’t care if I’ve been on the right road. It doesn’t matter if I’m on the path of happiness or to misery. Being strong […]
Two Poems by Leanne Ellul
Translated from Maltese by Albert Gatt
On again Again. Take me out of my depth. These legs below me flailing, flailing. Again take me to where I dive and make for pebbles that I take for rock. Amid me algae crushing through. It’s warm today. I take a breath of sky you listen your face turned to the light. Shadow […]
I’d Rather Not Have to Lie by Eider Rodríguez
Translated from 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 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 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 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 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 […]
