It is a strange house. Look: the hand suddenly opens sleeping doors. There are fine staircases and high windows. The windows are open and voices can be heard singing. Singing with the voice of the earth and the air of the sky. Slow voices descend black stairs. White voices descend trembling lofty columns. They sing […]
Translation
Open House by Circe Maia
Journalism by Circe Maia
(Translated from Spanish by Jesse Lee Kercheval)
The detailed description of the symptoms of the death by starvation of the captives in Maze Prison. The report of the surprising recovery, after an accident, of a worker or boy or young woman. The financial commentary: the rise and fall of bonds and shares. Picturesque and humorous stories. Recipes for beauty and the kitchen. […]
Leaf by Circe Maia
(Translated from Spanish by Jesse Lee Kercheval)
So absolutely unique (veins, hues). Alone only itself, alone. Leaf, a single glance separates you from the rest and makes you unique. (Or the glance found you unique . . . were you?) Were you, before it saw you, you and no one else? A leaf in the hand not in the foliage not in […]
To a Jar by Henryk Cierniak
(Translated from Polish by John Guzlowski)
oh tiny jar sealed up with rubber and a fastener just in case it’s not true that you carry emptiness inside – you contain room for happiness and sorrows and the pickled cucumbers are nice oh you jar the friend of long hours at the fireplace and summer revels faithful friend the transparent jar made […]
The Past by Henryk Cierniak
(Translated from Polish by John Guzlowski)
The house was nothing just a building site, thirteen years ago Remember it? It’s still nothing my son is sixteen How can I forget? He’s nothing but an ordinary boy actually a bit troublesome instead of putting up insulation he and his friends go to the village he walks like he’s some kind of god […]
Top-Down by Artur Azevedo
(Translated from Portuguese by Amanda Sarasien)
On that day the Minister arrived at his office in a foul mood and immediately sent for the Director-General of the Secretariat. The latter, as if powered by a battery, was, moments later, in the presence of His Excellency, who received him with steam coming out of his ears. “I’m furious!” exclaimed the Counselor. “Because […]
An excerpt from Ocosingo War Diary: Voices from Chiapas by Efraín Bartolomé
(Translated by Kevin Brown)
8:15 Splendidly beautiful day: intense sun and blue sky. Big cloud of smoke at town hall. Nine guerrillas on the corner. Indigenous Tzeltals all. Nothing on the radio: “They smashed the station to pieces,“ Dora reports. They turned the policemen loose: some of them passed this way, freezing to death, without shirts, without shoes, without socks. […]
Three Themes from Edward Hopper by Feliks Netz (translated by John Guzlowski and Janusz Zalewski)
1. Morning in the City a naked woman in a room naked as her skin turns away in shame from the eye of God and reaches in hopeless self-defense for a towel to cover her breasts and sex she combed her red hair back with her left ear exposed finished her morning toilet but not as […]
Identity by Amado Nervo (translated by Ethan Madarieta)
Tat tuam asi (You are this: that is, you are one and the same as all that surrounds you; you are the thing in itself) He who knows he is one with God achieves Nirvana: a Nirvana in which all darkness is illuminated; dizzying expansion of human consciousness, which is only a projection of the […]
Bloodrain by Agnar Artúvertin (translated by Matthew Landrum)
Run through the blood rain on the streets. Run fast before the police arrive. Look for an instant – between the houses the moon is sailing slowly, almost smilingly. I wonder how it would feel to be alone at such great a height, alone but surrounded with many stars: heaven’s rain or ember, traveling light […]
