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April 2008

Olympic Voices from China

Level A

By Huang Yongmei

A-Gump had already been called A-Gump.1 At that time, the American movie Forrest Gump wasn’t around yet. However, nobody knew about this. If A-Gump didn’t mention it, nobody would know. Among…

Translated from Chinese by Erin Yu-Tien Huang

Feminine Spirit, Unreconstructed

I first got to know Wang Jianan and Cai Xiaoli when I was in England. Wang Jianan can't stop talking, life in his mouth becomes a joke. Cai Xiaoli, on the other hand, hardly speaks at all, and doesn't…

Translated from Chinese

Red Bean Sticky Cakes and Running

I am a countrywoman. This year, I'm thirty-six years old. My name is Chen Wumi. This name isn't very pleasing to hear, but the Beijing reporter Guo Wangjing was charmed by my name. He said that…

Translated from Chinese by Victoria Hsieh

Wang Hanfang

At the time, young wives in our village didn’t have regular names. Add the word “xiao”–young–in front of their maiden names, that’s how they’d be called: “Xiao Qian,”…

Translated from Chinese by Hu Ying

Love’s Labor

“You noticed the way she came over, her chest out, eyes narrowed? She’s interested.”

Translated from Chinese by Hu Ying

Learn

Little Girl Lost

Dong Putao hadn’t been at work long when a shadow passed over the door. It was a man with a broad, slightly open mouth who, with a single movement, glided into the store like a shark. Ripples spread…

Translated from Chinese by John Barthelette

Footnotes Like Skyscrapers

“I want translations with copious footnotes, footnotes reaching up like skyscrapers to the top of this or that page so as to leave only the gleam of one textual line between commentary and eternity.”…

Morning Cloud, Evening Rain

A dream is not a dream A butterfly not a butterfly In the cloud, a pining spirit A myth in the dream's red chamber It's dawn. Our cruise ship has passed the roaring Qutang Gorge and entered Wushan…

Translated from Chinese

Travels with My Aunt

By Nicolás Casariego

If I had to choose a few words to sum up the trip it wouldn't be one phrase, but several, shouted loudly in my aunt Adelina's dry, shrill voice:“Stop! Stop! Will you stop once and for all!…

Translated from Spanish by Samantha Schnee

Pastoral

An expansion of plants with water fingers Drink this and look The laced skirts of raw milk The subterranean giants drowned in the azure And lakes open mouths have remained frozen Four oxen under a tree,…

Translated from Romanian

Shadows across Frosted Glass

By Juan José Saer

For Biby CastellaroTime is so complicated, yet so simple! Now I’m in the living room sitting in the rocking chair, and I can see Leopoldo’s shadow in the bathroom while he begins to undress.…

Translated from Spanish by Matthew Lansburgh

Random Notes on Beijing

Beijing's cab drivers are the best in the world. They don't accept tips, and if the drive is at all less than direct, they always eat the loss themselves. They start the meter only after the cab…

Translated from Chinese

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