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Winning Selections from the 2019 Poems in Translation Contest

September 2019

We’re proud to present the winners of our poetry contest, held in conjunction with the Academy of American Poets. Tune in every Saturday this month as we publish new work by the winning poets, copublished in Poets.org’s Poem-a-Day series.

The Winners of the Words Without Borders—Academy of American Poets Poem-in-Translation Contest
By the Editors of Words Without Borders
We received 717 poems from 282 poets from 87 countries translated from 55 languages.
Cloth Birds
By Dorothy Tse
There’s no cloth hawker in the bazaar / willing to make dirty deals
Translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce
MultimediaMultilingual
An Apocryphal History of the Discovery of Migration, or The Sacrifice of the Pfeilstörchen
By Alba Cid
it’s awful of me to interrupt, but I just / need you to understand how certain kinds of wounds can be useful.
Translated from Galician by Jacob Rogers
MultimediaMultilingual
Roommate, Woman
By Lee Young-ju
On waking, I see my body has been rearranged.
Translated from Korean by Jae Kim
MultimediaMultilingual
Tomboy
By Claudia Masin
I don’t understand how we walk around the world / ​as if there were a single way for each of us
Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
MultimediaMultilingual