TRANSLATIONS
3 Translated Rajathi Salma Poems
Salma’s language contains a primal boldness that she wishes the many worlds of the marginalised could possess. It is her courage of conviction and starkness of expression that make Salma one of the most influential Indian writers of our time. Her story has inspired women across the world, encouraging her sisters – modern-day Tamil women – to explore a new place of freedom and creative articulation.
6 Poems by Najwan Darwish
Born and raised in Jerusalem, Najwan Darwish has been hailed by the New York Times Book Review as ‘one of the foremost Arabic-language poets of his generation’. Nothing More to Lose, superbly translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, is his first …
10 Poems by Joan Brossa
Born in Barcelona into a family of artisans, Joan Brossa (1919-1998) first began writing when he was mobilised in the Spanish civil war. During the forties he was introduced to surrealism thanks to meeting Joan Miró and Joan Prats. This …
3 Self-translations in 3 Languages by Marilyne Bertoncini
Souvenir – Ricordo – Memory The grey Deûle flows inside its greyish banks. Dreams are reflected within the water grass, and changing fates sketch and mirror fleeting drafts beneath the water clouds where the sun hides with the sparrows in …
5 Poems by Vahe Arsen
Vahe Arsen (Arsenyan) was born in 1978 in Yerevan. He earned his PhD in American and English literature from Yerevan State University, and is currently assistant Professor of the Chair of World literature at Yerevan State University. He is also …
Danielle Collobert’s Survie
Danielle Collobert’s Survie is a sequence of six sonnetoid poems written and published in 1978 shortly before her suicide. The title is ironic: ‘survie’ means either the state of remaining alive after an event or in an environment that is normally fatal.
6 Poems from Nachoem Wijnberg’s Divan of Ghalib
Since being shortlisted for the Dutch prize for the best poetic debut of 1989, Nachoem M.Wijnberg has won a series of awards in both Belgium and the Netherlands, including the highly prestigious 2009 VSB Prize for the Netherlands’ best book of poetry.
Wijnberg is known for giving each of his poetry collections a distinct identity, both stylistically and in terms of content, and the poems reproduced here are drawn from his Divan of Ghalib, which was published in Dutch in 2009 and is due out in a complete English translation in May 2016 (White Pine Press, Buffalo).
6 Poems from Juan Diego Otero’s Los Tiempos del Ruido
It’s not easy to relate the tumult and commotion of that night; only that prosopopoeia, with which the preachers represent to us the day of judgement, can present us with some explanation of what physically occurred on the night of the terror: all of the people out of their houses, out of fear they would collapse.
2 Poems by Olga Orozco
Cartomancy The dogs that sniff out the lineage of ghosts, listen to them barking, listen to them tear apart the drawing of the omen. Listen. Someone approaches: the floorboards are creaking under your feet as if you will never stop …
from Marosa di Giorgio’s Funeral carriages laden with watermelons
What a strange species is the species angel. When I was born I heard them say “Angel”, “Angels”, or other names. “Spikenard”, “Iris”. Foam that grows on branches, the most delicate porcelain increasing all by itself. Spikenard. Iris.
George Seferis’s ‘On a Winter Ray’
Image courtesy of sefaria.com George Seferis was born 1900 in Smyrna, modern Turkey and died in Athens, Greece, in 1971. He is considered as the most important modernist innovator in modern Greek poetry. His collections include Mythistorema (1935), Book of …
3 Poems by Huang Lihai
Huang Lihai was born in Xuwen and now lives in Guangzhou. He is editor of the poetry magazines Poetry & People.
2 Poems by Chen Yuhong
I’ve Told You I’ve told you my forehead my hair miss you because clouds in the sky brushing through one another my neck my earlobes miss you because of the ennui of hanging bridge, alley grass and the bridge lane …
3 Poems by Cao Shuying
A Letter from International Waters (Love, I’m on international waters lying on the pale blue deck breeze touching the back of my bent knee thinking, ‘I belong to no one’ touching my cheekbones, two hanging cliffs A showing-off of local …
3 Poems by Rogelio Guedea
i’m thinking about my feet, sometimes a country i don’t understand
dwelling on my hands, two islands,
on my knee, remote and lonely city
Nori Nakagami’s ‘Dragon’s Egg’
A dragon lives in your heart. It coils around the man you love. It protects him. It will never release him, not until he meets his end. In time it will birth the world and everything that lives. This world …
Erin Mouré’s ‘Une fois nés’
This is a translation of ‘Une fois nes,’ a poem originally translated by Erin Mouré. It has been excerpted from a small chapbook, À Adan: poems d’Emma M. (Chatte, enr.): traduits par E. Mouré pour les amies et amis d’Emma …
2 Poems by Victor Hugo
At dawn, when the land
whitens, I’ll leave. You see I know
you’re waiting. I’ll go through the hills
Four Poems from Kim Hyesoon’s ‘Autobiography of Death’
Kim Hyesoon is one of the most prominent poets of South Korea. She lives in Seoul and teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Her most recent books in translation are Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (Action Books, 2014) and I’m OK, I’m Pig (Bloodaxe Books, 2014).
George Vulturescu: What Vision Cannot Stand
A tourist map of key points of interest in the George Vulturescu poetry-scape would feature a number of salient features that his poetry has developed over the course of a quarter-century career of increasing depth and metaphysical complexity. The first …
Farewell Sweet Ladybird: A Manifesto and Three Chronicles by Pedro Lemebel (1952–2015)
Pedro Lemebel (1952-2015) | Carla Pinilla | El Mercurio | Taken on 23/01/2015 Pedro Segundo Mardones Lemebel, known as Pedro Lemebel because he rejected his father’s surname in favour of his mother’s maiden name, was born in El Zanjón de …
Horse, Hawk and Cheetah: 3 Arabic Hunting Poems of Abū Nuwās
These three early ninth-century Arabic poems are examples of a genre of hunting poetry popular from the eighth to the tenth centuries. Three animals are described: a horse; a tiercel gos; and a cheetah.
Gu Yanwu: Translations of Letters, Poems and Essays
Gu Yanwu (1613-1682) stands out as one of the more remarkable figures in the history of Chinese letters, even in a landscape replete with remarkable figures.
5 Poems of Ángel González
Photograph courtesy of Susana González Ángel González (1925-2008) was a member of the so-called Spanish Generation of 1950 – perhaps its most celebrated exponent. Having grown up during the Civil War and in Franco’s ensuing dictatorship, González, in his own …
