Skip to main content

Words Without Borders Logo

Words Without Borders Monagram
—
Discover by Country
—
Discover by Theme
—
Discover by Contributor
—
Surprise Me!
Read
Learn
Events
About
Follow Us
Go to instagram
Go to twitter
Go to facebook
Go to youtube
Read
—
Surprise Me!
Discover by Country
—
Discover by Theme
—
Discover by Contributor
—
Learn
Events
About
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Natural World

This picture has the cover of the book Again I Hear These Waters by Shalim M. Hussain on the right...
“This, Here, Is Home”: Shalim M. Hussain on Miyah Poetry from Assam
By Uttaran Das Gupta
Poet and translator Shalim M. Hussain discusses Again I Hear These Waters , a new anthology that collects and celebrates poetry from the riverbanks and islands of the Brahmaputra.
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
By Paul Wamo
In two contrasting quartets of poems, New Caledonian poet Paul Wamo reflects on his otherness in France and his deep connection with the natural world of his native Lifou.
Translated from French by Jean Anderson
MultimediaMultilingual
A river winds through the hilly green countryside in northern Sweden
Photo by Fredrik Posse on Unsplash
The Same River Twice: Notes on Reading, Time, and Translation
By Saskia Vogel
I have been opening this book since 2018 and over the years, I have become many different readers.
A wagtail perching on a stick by a body of water
Photo by Nikita Nikitenko on Unsplash
A Wagtail’s Song
By Bikash Dihingia
How was it possible that there was another me buried within? And how could someone else feel his presence even before I could?
Translated from Assamese by Harsita Hiya
Multilingual
A wolf sleeping in the snow
Christian Pietzsch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Wolfskin
By Risten Sokki
“When the forested valleys in Russia start filling up with snow, the wolf begins its journey from the south toward the plains in the north.”
Translated from North Sámi by Olivia Lasky
The Water Freezes
By Alla Gorbunova
Your cheeks are pinked with Parnassus rose.
Translated from Russian by Elina Alter
Transcending the Human Viewpoint
By Madeleine Feeny
I allowed myself to be very playful and unafraid, and to try everything.
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
It’s difficult to calculate the influence of the missus of the night
By Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir
it’s difficult to appraise the unseeable
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
A wrecked wooden ship lying on its side, half-buried in the sand
Photo by Tradd Harter on Unsplash
Sinkings
By Haukur Ingvarsson
the glacier is black / polar bears run on hot sand
Translated from Icelandic by Meg Matich
Multimedia
Essays, or the Opening and Closing of the Okra Flowers During the Eclipse
By Alba Cid
The work of German photographer Karl Blossfeldt and his relationship to plants is reimagined in this poem by 2019 Poems in Translation Contest winner Alba Cid from her collection Atlas.Light is choral…
Translated from Galician by Megan Berkobien & Jacob Rogers
Multilingual
Portraits of Tunisian author Yamen Manai, and translator Lara Vergnaud.
Yamen Manai, photo © Delphine Manai, and Lara Vergnaud, photo © Pascal Michel.
Guided by the Bees: Yamen Manai and Lara Vergnaud on Translating “The Ardent Swarm”
By Lara Vergnaud & Yamen Manai
Tunisia’s experience with despotism and revolution is universal.
Aperture: Sudanese Female Novelists Coming into Focus
By Sawad Hussain
Is there some sort of double marginalization at play?
Freedom of Flight
By Ann El Safi
She is a woman I have watched for many years, and for as many years she has been unaware of me.
Translated from Arabic by Nariman Youssef
MultimediaMultilingual
Toward Our Common Destruction: Humans and the Environment
By Eric M. B. Becker
The protagonist of this month’s work is the natural world in its multitudes.
In Puget Sound
By Isabel Zapata
before their paths divided, they formed, together, three glints of light and shadow moving on at last
Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
Being Mangrove: Eliseu Cavalcante in Belmonte, Bahia, Brazil
By Eliseu Cavalcante
In Being Mangrove, Eliseu Cavalcante explores the relationship between humans and the mangrove forests of Bahia, Brazil.
The Sky’s Seams Burst
By Ondjaki
Rain was no longer rain!
Translated from Portuguese by Stephen Henighan
Tsunami Blues
By Markéta Pilátová
The shock that was yet to come had long ago passed her by.
Translated from Czech by Sára Foitová
Elephant
By Yu Jian
O, it is a defeated god, approaching the dusk of time.
Translated from Chinese by Xin Xu
Climates: On Environment
By Susan Harris
Global warming manifests in obvious ways.
The Water Man
By Ariadna Castellarnau
“Get it through your head: God and me, we’re the same person.”
Translated from Spanish by Adrian Nathan West
Farewell to the White Giants
By Andri Snær Magnason
Chaos is not confined to the glacier’s edge.
Translated from Icelandic by Lytton Smith
All Trash on the Eastern Side
By Duanwad Pimwana
What use is it for us humans to cling to our freedom in the midst of all this trash?
Translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul
Climate Fiction for Climate Action
By Amy Brady
No single means of communication can be solely effective, because climate change is such a “wicked” problem—it is truly planetary in scale.
Liberty and Hope
By Francisco de la Mora
So this is how it all ends . . .
Translated from Spanish by Nina Perrotta
Birds in Flight, 1965
By Enrique Villasis
Not as a multitude, but as one.
Translated from Filipino by Bernard Capinpin
MultimediaMultilingual
A hummingbird at sunset
Photo by Ramona Edwards on Unsplash
Our Father Is Tired
By Susy Delgado
a dark stillness / goes about sowing death.
Translated from Guaraní by Susan Smith Nash & Susy Delgado
Multilingual
Red earth has broken apart leaving a cliff-like overhand with exposed tree roots against a forest...
Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash
Color Thief
By Sara Shagufta
When a man cries / he floods himself in salt tears / and colorfast he drowns
Translated from Urdu by Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb
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
Cardinal Points: Four Basque Poets
By Amaia Gabantxo
Oral and written literary traditions in Basque follow two very distinct paths, both very rich and alive.
Painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder titled Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Fall of Icarus
By Joseba Sarrionandia
Almost no one cares for the wounds of others.
Translated from Basque by Amaia Gabantxo
Multimedia
A Memory
By Miren Agur Meabe
Our knees were trusting doves; the ribbons in our hair, delicious bait.
Translated from Basque by Amaia Gabantxo
Multilingual
Hand 3
By Juan Mari Lekuona
Everything—including life— / ends when the hands give up.
Translated from Basque by Amaia Gabantxo
Blue morning glories on a yellow background
Morning Glories by Suzuki Kiitsu. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Seymour Fund, 1954.
from “Everything Shimmers”
By Naja Marie Aidt
. . . the world shimmers / everything unimaginably possible . . .
Translated from Danish by Susanna Nied
MultimediaMultilingual
Helicopter seeds on a maple tree
Photo by bales on Unsplash
When did their language mingle with ours
By Vénus Khoury-Ghata
The female branches made off with the laundry on our lines
Translated from French by Marilyn Hacker
Multilingual
The moon is visible in the pink sky over a snowy mountain valley and frozen river
Photo by Daiwei Lu on Unsplash
solstice
By Sjón
The earth (like the heart) leans back in its seat
Translated from Icelandic by David McDuff
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
Mist: In the Capital City
By Reina María Rodriguez
How long did I contemplate the line dividing / the branch from the water.
Translated from Spanish by Kristin Dykstra
Multilingual