i want metaphors to taste as good / as bread soaked in milk
Translation
Two Poems
Record of Demolition
by Nianxi Chen, translated from the Chinese by L. B. Tsau
Morning headaches are set to blow up my brain / The extra gift of great machines
3 Poems
by Cho Ji Hoon, translated from the Korean by Sekyo Nam Haines
I am afraid / no one understands // the gentle mind of someone / living like a hermit
A Footprint in the Ashes of Time
by Dmitry Blizniuk, translated from the Russian by Sergey Gerasimov
If it wasn’t for our inborn optimism –
we drop coins into the sea, plant pear trees that are going to grow for centuries –
understanding of reality would burn us
like a match may burn poplar fluff
Three Prose Poems
by Dag T. Straumsvåg, translated from the Norwegian by Robert Hedin
Today the warden has come to visit. He hands me a napkin with a color print of “The Storming of the Bastille” on one side, an escape plan on the other.
A Bargain
by Bojan Babić, translated from the Serbian by John K. Cox
She’s bellowing to herself as she sits on the little portable stool. Vendors are charged an arm and a leg to get into the antiques fair.
An Afar Triangle
by Dane Thomas Boberg, translated from the 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 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.”
