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Islands

A picture of three military helicopters flying.

Picture by Elen Schurova, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

i had a country once

By Chantal T. Spitz

and beneath the new sci-fi city lie rotting the ruins and corpses of olden days

Translated from French by Jean Anderson

A picture of the mast of a Hōkūleʻa (a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe.)

Picture by Miliefsk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Regeneration: The Seeds of Life

By Virginie Hoifua Te Matagi Tafilagi-Takala

Intrepid long canoes leap out / Driving for the coral gap

Translated from French by Colin Anderson

Multilingual

A blurred picture of a person walking in a street at night.

Art by David Hammons. Courtesy of Harvard University Art Museums. Public domain.

Black and Blue

We shall sleep no more on the pillow of echoing pathos

Translated from French by Jean Anderson

MultimediaMultilingual

A dock extending into the ocean

Photo by Nikita Castro on Unsplash

[The sea swarms. Your shout extends]

By Claudia Becerra

The subjects of Claudia Becerra’s three poems, translated here by Jacqui Cornetta, are bounded by the shores of real and imaginary islands as they observe the arrivals and departures of others.

Translated from Spanish by Jacqui Cornetta

Dramatic clouds over a mountain and ocean in Puerto Rico

Photo by Rick Lipsett on Unsplash

Onto Dust We Shall Come

By Manuel Ramos Otero

I return to the world as I depart, / having birthed another phantom, / a dweller of nebulous coasts, / a brief enemy of metaphors.

Translated from Spanish by Cristina Pérez Díaz

On the Periphery

By Larissa Kyzer

The scope of the topics explored in this issue is, therefore, necessarily broad without being comprehensive.

The Sea Gives Us Children

By Thórdís Helgadóttir

Karen says she’s seen it when the souls begin their perambulations.

Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer

MultimediaMultilingual

See-the-Sea

By Dina Salústio

Are all of us accidents wandering through other people’s lives?

Translated from Portuguese by Nina Perrotta

Islands Running across the Globe

By Manuel Brito-Semedo

Right from the start, Cabo Verdean concepts of identity and individuality were defined by this mixed reality: the African and the European, in all their diverse and contrasting characteristics.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

A Form of African Identity

By Germano Almeida

It was only very gradually that we came to understand that the Europeans, out of malice or simple ignorance, had instilled in us our reluctance to accept our condition as Africans.

Translated from Portuguese by Stephen Henighan

Cabo Verde Is the Center of the World

By Germano Almeida

In those days the island of Boa Vista was the whole world.

Translated from Portuguese by Stephen Henighan

Lisbon – 1971

By Arménio Vieira

In point of fact, Lisbon was not waiting there [to greet us.

Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker & Shook

Caviar, Champagne, and Fantasy

By Arménio Vieira

The Esplanada, thick with the scent of fragrant [DDT

Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker & Shook