Literature in Translation |
“The Bird’s Birth,” “The Bird (II)” & “The Old Woman’s Song of Herself as a Young Girl”
“this is the bird / in whose one eye / there is the last leaf of fall / and in whose other eye / there is the news / of the spring baby’s hasty birth”
Literature in Translation |
“This Is A Humane Country”
“Once I got to the hotel, a man visiting from the inland said to me, “Your Spanish is a little too good. We don’t trust anybody who doesn’t speak a bit of our local lingo because they might pull one over on us. Know what I mean?”
Literature in Translation |
from The Number on Your Arm is Blue Like Your Eyes
“I’ve never met anyone younger than I with a number on his or her arm, but what would be so special about that? Those who try to sensationalize the memory of the Shoah or heap superlatives onto it trivialize the suffering of victims or veer into kitsch.”
Literature in Translation |
“Pankow”
“We’re fleeing and forget that after the war a whole country was fleeing – from itself, from the Russians, from guilt, from terror, from pain. The country fled into affluence, gluttony, repression, hedonism, anti-fascism, escapism.”
Literature in Translation |
from Lonespeech (Ensamtal)
“the smoke goes into the eye / the eye into the smoke / also they have / only that grave”
Literature in Translation |
“That the Song May Return to Sinera One Day” & “The Governor”
“I have stopped time / and cling to memories I love / from past winters. // But you will laugh / since you see how Catalan lips / stay sealed.”
Literature in Translation |
from A Gap in Time
“today i held / a seminar on surgery / online / we discussed thyroid cancer / where are those sufferers now? / recently / we’ve had hellishly good luck / since the bridge was blown up / our village / is no longer of importance to the military”
Literature in Translation |
“The Stranger,” “Nobody” & “He Can”
“… the mere presence / of his breathing / in this world is poison. / He can have a sky and a road / sewn out of doves and roses.”
Literature in Translation |
from Dostoyevsky in the Face of Death, or Language Haunted by Sex
“Retired Lieutenant Dostoevsky, age twenty-seven, for having taken part in criminal designs, having circulated a personal letter filled with impertinent expressions against the Orthodox Church and the sovereign power and for having attempted, together with others, to circulate works against the government through means of a private printing press, is condemned to death.”
Literature in Translation |
“The Missionary”
“It was pointless to warn him about the perils of crossing the sea and the dangers of the continent noir, the newly branded missionary would hear none of it. He left as if off to his honeymoon …”
Literature in Translation |
from The World and Varvara
“I once read that it was so cold at Lenin’s funeral that the musicians had to wipe their instruments with vodka so their lips wouldn’t stick. That’s about how chilly it was on the January day some eighty years ago when Varvara entered the world.”
Literature in Translation |
“To Whom It May Concern: On a Poet’s Development”
“Dozens of poetry books could be published without the authors’ names on the cover, because the composers of these books, in essence, are not really authors, but weak-willed mediums of a mode, school or tendency.”
Literature in Translation |
from Lojman
“Selma grabbed the razor from Görkem’s hand. She pressed it against the green cord coming out of the baby’s belly and connecting to something mysterious inside her. In one deft motion, she slashed the cord. She took a piece of twine from her pocket and tied the end.”
Literature in Translation |
from All Before the Night
“Blind to your destiny / your hand holding your hand, you go off / into the abyss of knowledge.”
Literature in Translation |
“Atlas” & “Y2K”
“No aircraft appears in this photograph. Instead, a mountain of trash bins overflowing in the background. Empty tuna cans, coffee filters, dirty diapers, used needles, cattle bones.”