Loss

Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash

Between Sky & Earth

By Olivia Elias

if we collected all the tears / would it wash away the soot / resurrect the dead.

Translated from French by Jérémy Victor Robert

Multilingual

Photo by Paolo Chiabrando on Unsplash

Nobody Can Identify Their Own Remains, and I Am Unable to Identify My Own

By Omar Ziyadeh

Sitting in front of the screen, my thoughts resemble a bombed hospital.

Translated from Arabic by Alice S. Yousef

MultimediaMultilingual

Photo by Michael Elliott Photography

A Mother’s Voice

By Silvia Arazi

Over coffee, my brother pulls up his chair and discreetly asks me if I’m going to write that book about our mother.

Translated from Spanish by Charlotte Coombe

Pedestrians walk over a bridge in Leningrad in 1991.

fdecomite, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Book of Conjuring

By Anna Badkhen

Thirty years had passed: who can recall all the minutiae of such a long-ago heartbreak?

Multimedia

black and white drawing of a boy with smoke coming up behind him floating over a red mound

Julia Griffin, "Smoke." Copyright Julia Griffin

Three Poems

By Imran Sada’i

I sit on the shores of emptiness / and watch my soul foaming red

Translated from Uyghur by Joshua L. Freeman

MultimediaMultilingual

Two pears hang from a branch in front of a blue sky

Photo by Mario015 Medeiros on Unsplash

Keder

By Yordanka Beleva

Way back, the old Turks believed that when you die, you bequest to your nearest and dearest precisely forty sorrows.

Translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel

MultimediaMultilingual

An old ornate mansion in India with a green wrought iron gate

Photo by Vikram Nath Chouhan 🇮🇳 on Unsplash

Once Elephants Lived Here: Part 2

By Geetanjali Shree

The city murmured in the mazes of her ancient face.

Translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

Two blue glass skyscrapers seen from below against a cloudy blue sky

Photo by Shubham Sharma on Unsplash

Once Elephants Lived Here: Part 1

By Geetanjali Shree

Here, all things old have been suppressed.

Translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

A black and white image of a hairbrush with an engraved handle

Photo by Michèle C., licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Making of Tenderness

By Lyuba Yakimchuk

and where do they make this tenderness / as the war rages on around them?

Translated from Ukrainian by Oksana Maksymchuk

MultimediaMultilingual

MultimediaMultilingual

Brown steel bell hanging from a mint-green wooden wall

Photo by Luís Perdigão on Unsplash

Trial Run

By Yau Ching

nothing is certain but and taxes

Translated from Chinese by Chenxin Jiang

MultimediaMultilingual

Pegasus Autopsy

By Julio Pazos Barrera

Soon the volunteers will arrive

Translated from Spanish by Bryan Mendoza

MultimediaMultilingual

Two reindeer on a rocky ledge with a body of water behind them

Photo by Jørgen Håland on Unsplash

Journey toward the Island

By Laila Stien

Norway’s Laila Stien tracks a group of Sámi herders guiding their reindeer on the seasonal migration to the north, fighting obstacles both natural and man-made.

Translated from Norwegian by Kerri Pierce

Father’s Chair

By Vinicius Jatobá

But only one chair was Father's chair, the heir's chair.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

Multilingual

Season of Grief

By Guy-Gerald Ménard

Entwined concrete houses / perform pirouettes on both sides of the street

Translated from Haitian Creole by Chantal Kenol

Multilingual

Under the Rubble

By Guy-Gerald Ménard

Fear sets up a tent / on our chest

Translated from Haitian Creole by Chantal Kenol

Multilingual

January 12, 2010

By Lyonel Trouillot

We already know there are no words for saying some things.

Translated from French by Linda Coverdale

In All Magnitude

By James Noël

I abhor humanitarianism.

Translated from French by Antoine Bargel & Alexis Pernsteiner

Multilingual

Landscape image of Karoo, Beaufort West, South Africa

Photo by Juanita Swart on Unsplash

Poison Karoo

By Etienne van Heerden

Perhaps I will poison a petrol engineer’s coffee.

Translated from Afrikaans by Isobel Dixon

Photo by Julie Fader on Unsplash

Bonsai

By Guadalupe Nettel

If I was a cactus, what kind of plant was Midori?

Translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey

The Train

By Murathan Mungan

We carry within us the greatest secret in life.

Translated from Turkish by Ruth Christie

A Bullet Fired into the Night

By Ngo Tu Lap

No one knows he used to be a man

Translated from Vietnamese by Martha Collins & Ngo Tu Lap

Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity

By Fadwa Touqan

I miss the company of books / Their consolation through trouble and joy

Translated from Arabic by Chris Millis & Tania Tamari Nasir

From “The Rising of the Ashes”

By Tahar Ben Jelloun

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: La remontee des cendres (The Rising of the Ashes) is the title of a small text, written in French by the Paris-based Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun. It was published by Editions…

Translated from French by Cullen Goldblatt

Product IV (Love and Death)

By Tadeusz Pióro

An anthologist from Berlin asks me / for poems new or recognized:

Translated from Polish by the author

Damascus, What Are You Doing to Me?

By Nizar Qabbani

How do the gardens of Sham transform me?

Translated from Arabic by Shareah Taleghani

Memories of Lily-Colored Photographs

By Jung Mi Kyung

These pictures were for the two of us to look at, laughing, never something to keep or show someone else.

Translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim

From “Portrait of M”

By Matei Călinescu

Anyone's death is a great tragedy.

Translated from Romanian by Angela Jianu

Photo of the Oudezijds Kolk canal in Amsterdam

Bert Kaufmann from Roermond, Netherlands, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From “The Ministry of Pain”

By Dubravka Ugrešic

Instead of talking, they seem to be patting each other with words, spreading a soothing, sonorous saliva over one another.

Translated from Croatian by Michael Henry Heim

I Pity the Garden

By Forugh Farrokhzad

The schoolchildren fill their backpacks / with tiny bombs.

Translated from Persian by Sholeh Wolpé

Learn

Elegy

By Ahmad Shamlou

And so we repeat the round / of night and day

Translated from Persian by Zara Houshmand

Learn

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Loss

Between Sky & Earth

Nobody Can Identify Their Own Remains, and I Am Unable to Identify My Own

A Mother’s Voice

The Book of Conjuring

Three Poems

Keder

Once Elephants Lived Here: Part 2

Once Elephants Lived Here: Part 1

The Making of Tenderness

Princess

Transcending the Human Viewpoint

Three Observations, Untitled

Trial Run

Pegasus Autopsy

Journey toward the Island

Father’s Chair

Season of Grief

Under the Rubble

January 12, 2010

In All Magnitude

Poison Karoo

Bonsai

The Train

A Bullet Fired into the Night

Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity

From “The Rising of the Ashes”

Product IV (Love and Death)

Damascus, What Are You Doing to Me?

Memories of Lily-Colored Photographs

From “Portrait of M”

From “The Ministry of Pain”

I Pity the Garden

Elegy