May 2008
The ever-fabulous PEN World Voices Festival begins this week in New York City and here at Words Without Borders we’ve been plotting our own celebration, joining forces with PEN to provide a global take on matters public and private. Is the line between public and private growing ever thinner? When must private stories be recounted for public good? On Spanish battlefields and Dutch beaches, in Norwegian ships and Hungarian trucks, borders are crossed and boundaries blurred as writers negotiate personal and political entanglements. Coral Bracho, Fatou Diome, György Dragomán, Yael Hedaya, Chenjerai Hove, Lieve Joris, Amanda Michalopoulou, Antonio Muńoz Molina, Jo Nesbř, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Francesc Serčs, Anja Sicking, Saa Staniic, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Abdourahman A. Waberi, and A. B. Yehoshua attest: these aren’t open and closed cases. If you are in New York City, join Words Without Borders for our two special PEN World Voices events: Thursday May 1 at 1 pm , Burma: A Land at the Crossroads with Ian Buruma and Thant Myint-U and Saturday, May 3 at 2:30 pm, Olympic Voices from China with Ma Jian and Xiaolu Guo. Our special thanks to Caro Llewellyn and Elizabeth Weinstein for their invaluable assistance with this issue.
The Soul Mate
A. B. Yehoshua on losing a son to a soul mate
Translated by Gila Brand
They bonded in the army.
Ernst and Mylia
Gonçalo M. Tavares riffs on last rites
Translated by Anna Kushner
The church was still in front of her, silent.
A Voice in the Crowd: A Sketch
Antonio Muńoz Molina’s disenfranchised traveler is stopped in his tracks
Translated by Esther Allen
His passport photo already depicted another man.
Dafna
Yael Hedaya on inconceivable loss
Translated by Jessica Cohen
Even the disappointment is no longer very meaningful to her.
The Story of One Occasion
Kristín Ómarsdóttir screens two movie stars’ home entertainment
Translated by Janice Balfour
Marilyn loved baking rolls for Greta.
from How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
Saa Staniic’s visiting Italian designs dams and engineers gossip
Translated by Anthea Bell
I leafed through the dictionary to “I’m sorry.”
Light
Amanda Michalopoulou’s elderly sisters weather sibling rivalry
Translated by Karen Emmerich
Do you know how you’re going to die?
Tyrant
Chenjerai Hove topples tyranny with the power of the word
The king wears necklaces of bullets.
They Began to Call You and Other Poems
Coral Bracho hears the call of a cliff
Translated by Forrest Gander
You could see the entrance of the cave.
from Friends for Four Years
Anja Sicking’s teen clique finds intimacy in numbers
Translated by Sherry Marx
The group split into pairs.
Of Words and Borders
Chenjerai Hove inscribes the sorrow of exile
You are alone in a crowd, without a country.
MS Hitra
Jo Nesbř’s ferry captain navigates a double life
Translated by Don Bartlett
He still came and went every alternate night.
Field of Battle, Field of Fruit
Francesc Serčs on how a general executes his charges
Translated by Peter Bush
This hologram, the flock above, a whole mirror.
Haul
György Dragomán on a smuggling circus
Translated by Paul Olchváry
Let’s just say you two will be riding bearback.
from In Ben's Footsteps
Abdourahman Waberi tracks Walter Benjamin
Translated by David Ball and Nicole Ball
Sorrow is a piece of luggage that you weigh as you go.
The East
Lieve Joris illuminates the dark heart of contemporary Congo
Translated by Liz Waters
That boy pushed him into the arms of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
Over the River 
Tashi Dawa’s raftsman navigates the currents of love lost
Translated by Li Guoqing
The village girls married across river.
Wandering Song 
Rubén Darío on the music of poetry
Translated by Gabriel Gudding
A poet moves in the world.
Under the Bridge 
Rosario Sanmiguel’s immigrant smuggler crosses over
Translated by John Pluecker
Maids, gardeners, waiters, even a mariachi with instruments and everything.
Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi 
Reviewed by Elham Gheytanchi
A man–not just in Iran, but everywhere, can manipulate those who see the world in black and white….
To This Day by S. Y. Agnon 
Reviewed by Tsipi Keller
“In my writing .I was influenced by every man, woman, and child who happened in my way….”