When the thread was severed, we were there, at that place which had been to me or maybe to you too as frightening and eerie as all other places. As such, I have the impression that I resemble the man who, on an inauspicious afternoon, gets into a taxi with a bearded man who keeps pushing him, “write about you and me,” but who instead notes,
I only write about people who you may or may not know in the future.
Translation
12 Queer Poetry Collections in Translation to Add to Your End-Of-Year Reading List
Finding poetry in translation where the author or translator directly references their sexual orientation or gender identity (or that of their characters) can sometimes be a daunting task. As a Queer writer and translator myself, I take this as a personal challenge.
Review: Sheyla Smanioto’s Out of Earth
by Jacqueline Schaalje
Out of Earth, the award-winning debut novel by Brazilian novelist Sheyla Smanioto, translated from Portuguese into English by Laura Garmeson and Sophie Lewis, and published by Boiler House Press, is about digging. The digging is simultaneously of dead bodies from the earth, dogs dug from the body which invariably means violence is going to flare […]
The Tree
by Zhe Zhang
translated from the Chinese by Xiaoming Shan
What a place, nothing but for some bare rocks. A stark mountain, literally.
in the pericardium
by Nadja Küchenmeister,
translated from the German by Aimee Chor
back to the core, center and crux /
a husked thing hangs from strands /
in the pericardium a span
History of a Piano in Spacetime
by Isis Aquino, Translated from the Spanish by Monica Louzon
On February 3, 1868, la señorita Margarita Vogler, daughter of a foreign merchant who lived in Santiago de los Caballeros, ran away with Ismael Pérez Soriano, a mulato who fought with the rebel soldiers in the Dominican War of Restoration. The girl was sixteen, and her disapproving father—who had prevented Ismael from courting Margarita—flew into […]
Guyu: Rain for the Crops
By Xiang Yang, translated from the Chinese by Pinyu Hwang
From between the brows of low rolling hills we have Awakened, from within the liquid gaze of the fog Awakened. It’s now the end of spring March, amidst a splendid attire of green, too Awakened. Sunlight strolls through yearning acacias Offering our peeping heads a sheer yellow And a smile. We are a people of […]
Eyes
by Humayun Ahmed, translated from the Bengali by Yeshim Iqbal
They are going to take Moti Miya’s eyes out with a date thorn tonight. During the evening prayers. Idris from Nobiganj is going to do it. He’s done it before. They are keeping Moti in Borkot Shahib’s shed. Moti’s hands and feet are tied up. Several people are standing around to guard him. This is […]
Newlyweds by Miklós Vámos
translated from the Hungarian by Ági Bori
Newlyweds Four passengers occupied the narrow, second-class coach of the train bound for Lake Balaton. A young man, a young woman, an old-age pensioner, and a middle-aged goose. They formed two pairs: the dewy-eyed newlyweds were on their way to their honeymoon, while the second pair headed to a wedding. As for the goose, he […]
Icarus by Vraiux Dorós
translated from the Spanish by Toshiya Kamei
Don’t under any circumstances read this book, I said to myself.
And the world was created.