RAIN II
which rests in the watery thicket
silt of calcified time
streams between wrists and thighs
rain in this month of winter
this green and gray July
hear it thrumming on the roof
feel it thrumming on the tongue
they have loved my silence
a woman’s silence
I have loved my silence
a black man’s silence
which is, too, the water’s silence
it calls out Fire
Judith Kiros (b. 1989) is a Swedish poet, translator, and critic. Her 2019 debut
O was shortlisted for Swedish Radio’s Poetry Prize, Katapultpriset, and Borås Tidning’s Prize for Debut Authors. Kira Josefsson's translation of the book is currently a finalist for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. Kiros is the 2023 winner of the Mare Kandre Prize and Svenska Dagbladets Literature Prize. Kiros is a PhD candidate in English literature at Karlstad University and lives in Stockholm.
Kira Josefsson is a writer, editor, and translator working between Swedish and English. Her translations have been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the Bernard Shaw Prize, and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. She lives in Queens, New York, and writes on US events and politics in the Swedish press.
