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Marriage

space gray iPhone
Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash.
Viral
By Mahua Sen Mukhopadhyay
Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that Mukul would upload the video to Facebook. It went viral in a day.
Translated from Bengali by Sayari Debnath
A merry-go-round spins in the darkness.
Flickr
I Shall Live in the Night
By Olivia Duchesne
I say: I’m lying for you, Lisé. You say: You’re lying for your mother, Nesta.
Translated from French by Siân Robyns
Breathtaking image of a temple in Nepal with snowy mountains in the background
Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash
Nepal
By Marina Gudelj
“Mom was like, ‘The Himalayas? She’s never even climbed the Mosor, right here on her doorstep.’”
Translated from Croatian by Ena Selimović
MultimediaMultilingual
A cluster of green and flowering cacti
Photo by Brandon Hoogenboom on Unsplash
Far Beyond the Sun
By Denise Phé-Funchal
Grandma goes inside the house and a few minutes later comes out with a small ax in her hand.
Translated from Spanish by David Unger
MultimediaMultilingual
Empty train tracks disappearing into the horizon in a dry landscape
Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash
The Kettledrum
By Siddique Alam
In the forest, between the acacia, mulberry, and stinging nettle bushes, where snakes shed their skin, she searched for Mangru’s footprints.
Translated from Urdu by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
A man paddles a canoe in a river at sunset
Photo by Inu Etc on Unsplash
Roots
By Madhurima Barua
The stench of country liquor assaults her. Her husband is tottering.
Translated from Assamese by Syeda Shaheen Jeenat Suhailey
MultimediaMultilingual
The White Tablecloth
By Irene Solà
Eight years and I’m still not over it.
Translated from Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem
A landscape of dunes in Timimoun under a blue sky
Chettouh Nabil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A Night in Timimoun
By Nina Bouraoui
It's your skin I feel sliding beneath my soapy palms.
Translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
The Husband and His Brother
By Björn Halldórsson
When Böddi came back to Iceland a month later, he was engaged.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
MultimediaMultilingual
Firstclaw
By Sachiko Kashiwaba
Firstclaw’s love spells were rumored to be unusually effective.
Translated from Japanese by Avery Fischer Udagawa
Al Fisaikra
By Qatari Oral Tradition
Set me free and I'll make you rich.
Translated from Arabic by Kholoud Saleh
The Head of Household Manifesto
By Catalina Mena
The hearth is a fire that’s always being extinguished.
Translated from Spanish by Susannah Greenblatt
Multimedia
My Name’s Nancy
By Bruno Lloret
When did you agree to live like a widow before your time?
Translated from Spanish by Ellen Jones
Shaheb Bibi Golam
By Bimal Mitra
It was late. Who knew where Bhootnath could buy liquor at this hour?
Translated from Bengali by Somrita Ganguly
Heeng Kochuri
By Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
I cannot serve a glass of water to a Brahmin’s son.
Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha
The House of Wax
By Subodh Ghosh
“Have you been able to forget me?”
Translated from Bengali by Somrita Ganguly
Devdas
By Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
She searched for an answer, embarrassed for the first time in her life at having to say what she was about to.
Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha
Bengali to Bollywood
By Arunava Sinha
Arunava Sinha introduces the four stories in our December feature exploring Bollywood’s debt to Bengali writers.India’s Hindi film industry is the largest in the world in terms of the number…
My Grandfather and Sitt Biba
By Mohammed Abdelnabi
I was convinced that I really had caused the death of the one I loved most.
Translated from Arabic by Nariman Youssef
photo of a half-open blue wooden door with a latch
Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash
The Latch
By Amar Nyaupane
Why did he have to sleep with his bride?
Translated from Nepali by Ajit Baral
A close-up of meat bound into a round shape, wrapped in plastic.
Photo by Bastenbas from Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The Vegetarian
By Han Kang
In this excerpt from 2024 Nobel Laureate in Literature Han Kang's Booker Prize-winning novel, a man reels as his wife suddenly decides to give up meat.
Translated from Korean by Deborah Smith
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A close-up image of crystal meth.
Radspunk, CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons
A Blackened Land
By Kim Yeon-Seul
The earth is dark, the sky is dark, and the people’s hearts are dark.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
Multilingual
A flowering bush, a leafy shrub, a bonsai tree, and a cactus stand in a row in front of a white...
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
knight from chess set
Copyright © Cyrus Chong
The Knight
By Olga Tokarczuk
Why are you crying? he said. Over chess, over that knight?
Translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft
From “Trifero”
By Ray Loriga
Two newlyweds become enraptured and inseparable in this story by Spanish writer Ray Loriga.
Translated from Spanish by Samantha Schnee
The Wondrous Deer of the Eternal Hunt
By Svetlana Alexievich
He was a wildly lonely person. I loved him.
Translated from Russian by Marian Schwartz
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