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Into The Wild: International Nature Writing

August 2009

As summer descends, and minds wander to the out-of-doors, our authors cultivate relationships with the natural world. From lyrical reports about life in unfamiliar territories, both hot and cold, to brooding accounts of the fever that nature puts into the mind and work of writers around the world, our August issue crosses over to the wild side. Follow Laurentino Gomes, Manuel de Lope, Nikos Kachtitsis, László Krasznahorkai, Mohamed Magani, Cees Nooteboom, Harald Weinrich, and Raúl Zurita as they explore the unknown and confront the untamed.

A Journey to Spitsbergen
By Cees Nooteboom
On the flight from Oslo to Tromsø, two worlds: the land far below me, the map on my lap.
Translated from Dutch by Liedewy Hawke
From “Bestiary”
By Harald Weinrich
Here come the animals, tame and wild: / Already it’s problematic.
Translated from German by Steven Rendall
From “Iberia”
By Manuel de Lope
There are those who think that Mundaca is the most beautiful town on the Biscayan coast.
Translated from Spanish
From “El último lobo”
By László Krasznahorkai
He was doing nothing, not a damn thing, simply drifting, spending hours sitting in the Sparschwein with his first glass of Sternburg at his side [ . . . ]
Translated from Hungarian by George Szirtes
1808
By Laurentino Gomes
Thus began the most noteworthy period of transformation in Rio de Janeiro.
Translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin
Seismic Activity
By Mohamed Magani
One summer in Germany, the obscure and tenuous link between literature and seismic activity tightened and took on all the solidity of a secure and binding knot.
Translated from French by Catherine Spencer
From “Mezzanine”
By Nikos Kachtitsis
Neither should my death be attributed to any of the enemies I obtained in my country after the war.
Translated from Greek by Lissi Athanasiou Krikeli & George Fragopoulos
Love of Chile
By Raúl Zurita
For love of Chile, for love of all things/ from north to south, east and west
Translated from Spanish by Cristina de la Torre & Diana Glad