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Poetry

colorful fish
Photo by Cihan Yüce on Pexels.
The sea and the here and
By Kyongmi Park
In Kyongmi Park’s dreamlike narrative poem, the sea and the body shape each other in mysterious ways and raise questions about community and selfhood.
Translated from Japanese by Rina Kikuchi & Jen Crawford
Multilingual
An abandoned house
Photo by Alexis Montero on Unsplash.
House Raid
By Fahmida Riaz
In this Fahmida Riaz poem, the police come looking for incendiary material and find a writer’s blazing vision instead.
Translated from Urdu by Poorna Swami
Multilingual
a group of windows with
Photo by Aitziber Ruiz de Eguino on Unsplash.
Gynecological Ultrasound Report
By Lu Ye
Poet Lu Ye takes us through a gynecological report rewritten in lyric prose.
Translated from Chinese by M Lin
cracked earth
Photo by Ashford Marx on Pexels.
Hunger Is No Forest Fire
By Vajesinh Pargi
Three powerful poems from Adivasi poet Vajesinh Pargi.
Translated from Gujarati by Pratishtha Pandya
blurred motion
Photo by Loc Dang on Pexels.
God’s Child
By Takako Arai
by next spring / he’ll be a god’s child
Translated from Japanese by Rina Kikuchi & Jen Crawford
Multilingual
photo of Lake Lemuria
Photo by Alex P on Pexels.
Queer Shores of Ukraine
By Alex Averbuch
in the evening you looked through the photos / that I collected in empty homes
Translated from Ukrainian by Oksana Maksymchuk, Max Rosochinsky & Alex Averbuch
Multilingual
A photo of a curry tree.
Photo by Luwenn on Wikimedia Commons.. Public Domain.
Chellam
By Sabitha Söderholm
I make a list of things with juicy, yellow centers: mango pit, egg yolk, infection, lemon.
Translated from Danish by Sherilyn Hellberg
An aerial shot of a house in the middle of a forest.
Photo by AFRIQUE AYELE-Y from Pexels.. Public Domain.
My Love Lives on Wind
By Patron Henekou
The clouds are sailing low. I adore you who makes the sky fall.
Translated from French by Connie Voisine & Patron Henekou
MultimediaMultilingual
A close-up photo of a pedestrian crossing in Taipei, Taiwan.
Photo by Henry & Co. from Pexels.. Public Domain.
I Live at the Foot of Taipei
By Maniniwei
I found the lions and tigers of Taipei / living in my empty stomach
Translated from Chinese by Emily Lu
MultimediaMultilingual
Photo of a strawberry moon in Chennai, India.
Photo by kumaravel on Flickr.. Public Domain.
Strawberry moon and all the gardens are leaking
By Dominique De Groen
Hundreds of moons came and went / in the night the glow lit up faces you'd never noticed before
Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
MultimediaMultilingual
A photo of a valley in Aloued, Morocco.
Photo by Omar from Unsplash.. Public domain.
My Language Is Tamazight
By Ali Sadqi Azaykou
My language is Tamazight. / It will shatter / the age of silence
Translated from Tamazight by El Habib Louai
Multilingual
A close-up photo of a cracked mirror against a black opaque background.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels.. Public domain.
The Mirror
By Mohamed Ouagrar
In the mirror I see another / He sometimes praises me / He sometimes imitates me
Translated from Tamazight by Brahim El Guabli
MultimediaMultilingual
Photo of the top of two lit incense sticks.
Photo by Abhas Jaiswal from Pexels.. Public domain.
Tomorrow I Will Celebrate Myself
By Fadma Farras
I unraveled our bond / I locked my heart
Translated from Tamazight by Ezzahra Benlahoussine
The interior of a prison cell, with a light high up on the white wall opposite the camera. Sunlight...
Photo by Jimmy Chan from Pexels.. Public domain.
June 12, in Prison
By Kerima Lorena Tariman
The here and there / are endless, boundless.
Translated from Filipino by Amanda Socorro Lacaba Echanis
A blurry image of a tall window of a building.
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash.. Public domain.
The Butterfly Bit Me
By Ghayath Almadhoun
Whenever I pronounce your name I become a child again, so much a child that my milk teeth grow back.
Translated from Arabic by Catherine Cobham
Multilingual
A photo of a street in Amman, with cars parked on each side of the road. In the foreground there...
Photo by Danil Ahmetşah from Unsplash. Public domain.
A Street or Less
By Maha Alautoom
If this longing could ebb / Only the earth would remain.
Translated from Arabic by Salma Harland
Multilingual
A photo of a power kite flying high in the sky as the sun sets. In the right corner there is a...
Photo by Photo by Kürşad Karaağaç from Pexels. Public domain.
You Exist to Dream
By Zuhair Abu Shayeb
Leave the place where it lies / and go dream
Translated from Arabic by Miled Faiza & Karen McNeil
Multilingual
A watercolor painting of a solitary boat on a misty lake with mountains in the background
"Rain, Bellagio" by George Elbert Burr. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Carolann Smurthwaite in memory of her mother, Caroline Atherton Connell Smurthwaite. Public domain.
Dedicated to All Living Beings Who Suffer
By Yang Licai
To scrub away the silk threads of pain, endless sorrow, sharp anguish, heartache . . .
Translated from Chinese by Joshua Edwards & Lynn Xu
MultimediaMultilingual
An oval shard of pottery with a wide band of deep purple through the middle and sky blue at both...
Circular shard, China, 960 CE–1279, stoneware with light blue and purple glaze. Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain.
A Violet Darkness
By Najwan Darwish
Yes, love was time, and it too / splintered and cracked
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
MultimediaMultilingual
Beige and brown smudges against a blue background
Photo by Visax on Unsplash
The Translation of War
By Baktash Abtin
what is language? and what is the translation of war?
Translated from Persian by Nasim Basiri
Water droplets caught in a large spiderweb
Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Arachnoscientific Salvation
By Katrine Øgaard Jensen
a sensation of intricate webs / soft, possibly smooth, and heavy
Multimedia
Two ants on a tree branch
Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash 
Here Is How It Could Be: Two Poems by Marie T. Martin
By Marie T. Martin
Slowly, with a crack, the snail shell breaks— / you don’t need it anymore.
Translated from German by Kathleen Heil
A subtle spiderweb pattern on a greenish-gray background
Sidewall - sample. Gift of Dorwin L. Starr. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Public domain.
Story—Late Summer or Early Fall
By Yoo Heekyung
The spider is hiding, why don’t you try touching the spiderweb
Translated from Korean by Stine An
MultimediaMultilingual
Close-up of a white orchid with a purple and green center.
Photo by Sanx, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At the Same Time
By Wang Jiaxin
The official briefing said, “The family has no objection to the findings”
Translated from Chinese by Arthur Sze
Multilingual
A picture of Sangarius Bridge.
Picture by Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No Home Except This Breeze: Four New Poems by Najwan Darwish
By Najwan Darwish
You’re in the middle of September, and life is a bridge in a dream.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
A close-up of the top of an Erhu, a Chinese two-sting musical instrument, carved as a dragon head.
Photo by Andrew Kuo
Erhu
By Dan Ying
The alley starts to stretch / on the first bow stroke
Translated from Chinese by Christina Ng
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
By Paul Wamo
We shall sleep no more on the pillow of echoing pathos
Translated from French by Jean Anderson
MultimediaMultilingual
A canoe sits in a bay in French Polynesia.
Nico Smit, via Unsplash
The Lagoon of Languages
By Flora Aurima Devatine
Languages are merely lagoons, bays, inlets, linked together by currents, passes, channels.
Translated from French by Jean Anderson
Multilingual
Sketch of refugee woman and child on wove paper
"Refugees, c. 1914/1919" by Jean-Louis Forain (artist) French, 1852 - 1931 in the Rosenwald Collection in the National Gallery of Art
Beneath Le Départ des Poilus, Paris Gare de l’Est
By Golan Haji
Here, yesterday and now, / what did they gather as they fled
Translated from Arabic by Katharine Halls
MultimediaMultilingual
Woodcut image of a male prisoner behind bars on wove paper
"The Prisoner (Der Gefangene), 1918" by Christian Rohlfs (artist) German, 1849 - 1938 in the Gift of Jacob Kainen Collection in the National Gallery of Art
A Censored Poem
By Carol Sansour
Take this city / bite it like an apple
Translated from Arabic by Katharine Halls
MultimediaMultilingual
Picture of a bunch of green avocados, viewed from above
Photo by Hitoshi Namura on Unsplash
Swedish for Immigrants
By Judith Kiros
In this excerpt from O, her feminist retelling of Othello, Swedish poet Judith Kiros reflects on immigration, language conformity, and cultural adjustment.
Translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson
Landscape painting of fallen and snapped trees in a forest with dark clouds overhead
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund) in the National Gallery of Art
From A to Z: A Dialogue with Mahmoud Darwish
By Enver Sajjad
Why did they insist on war when they heard of elements other than water that flow in rivers?
Translated from Urdu by Haider Shahbaz
Illustration of golden crescent moon and stars on a blue but cloudy night
See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Untitled
By Nasser Rabah
They leave without turning the moon of longing off behind them . . .
Translated from Arabic by Emna Zghal, Khaled al-Hilli & Ammiel Alcalay
Multilingual
Black-and-white photo of people walking in Beijing
Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash
In Your Room
By Wang Jiaxin
You, then, have no basis to be self-righteous.
Translated from Chinese by Arthur Sze
Etching of a bird flying over the countryside with a view of a city in the background
Bird of Paradise by Jacques Callot in the Rosenwald Collection of the National Gallery of Art
Creating Creatures
By Binoy Majumdar
You too can create a new god or goddess this way, though you are a human.
Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha
A gibbous moon shines over a river with reeds growing out of the shallows
Photo by Tania Malréchauffé on Unsplash
Púsāmán: To a Female Friend
By Qiu Jin
The wistful longings of clouds and trees extend on and on.
Translated from Chinese by Yilin Wang
Multilingual
A close-up of red and pink square sequins
Photo by Fredrik Solli Wandem on Unsplash
Thank Goodness They’re Not Here
By Cristina Rivera Garza
Here there could be room for a light that I haven’t seen again and I can’t / describe and therefore remember.
Translated from Spanish by Ilana Luna & Cheyla Samuelson
Red ants crawling over gray rocks
Photo by Greg Guadagnoli on Unsplash
The Geology of the Place
By Cristina Rivera Garza
Thus the before was born and thus born the after.
Translated from Spanish by Ilana Luna & Cheyla Samuelson
A close-up of brown window blinds
Photo by Meg on Unsplash
The Symptomatology of the Place
By Cristina Rivera Garza
They speak to the trees in the language / of trees and to the grass in the language of grass
Translated from Spanish by Ilana Luna & Cheyla Samuelson
Image of a coiled brown boa constrictor
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
Pedestrians walk on a dirt road in the city of Gaza
Photo by Emad El Byed on Unsplash
[Come here, Death, and let me feed you]
By Ahlam Bisharat
Even the moans of suffering that made me ache—I’ve stashed them away in a bag of old laments.
Translated from Arabic by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Image of dried mud
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash
“Pull Yourself Together” and “Seven Skies for the Homeland”
By Hiba Abu Nada
In our books, hunger and bread are synonyms, / light and darkness all broken shards.
Translated from Arabic by Huda Fakhreddine
Multilingual
Shovels leaning against a dirt wall
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
An ivory background with water stains
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Kaddish: For Miklós Radnóti
By Radu Vancu
Romanian poet Radu Vancu channels the Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti, murdered in the Holocaust.
Translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter
Multilingual
A pair of vintage storage trunks sitting on a sandy-colored, tiled floor
Photo by Sam Jotham Sutharson on Unsplash
Nothing unfinished is completed
By Vinod Kumar Shukla
As if I were arriving at the end of arriving.
Translated from Hindi by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
A nitrate negative of Gaza
"Gaza. (Ghuzze). Section near the mosque" by American Colony in LOC.
Afterwords
By Sinan Antoon
After our house in Jabalia was destroyed we hid in the UNRWA school. But the bombs followed us there too . . .
Translated from Arabic by the author
Multimedia
A photograph of tombstones covered in autumn leaves and overgrowth in a forest
Photo by Samuel Š on Unsplash
Psalm XCI
By Julia Fiedorczuk
disease came dwelling / now it eats my bread
Translated from Polish by Bill Johnston
Multilingual
Five vultures standing on bare tree branches
Photo by Casey Allen on Unsplash
Of Some Unidentified Village, Nayantara Barua
By Avinash Shrestha
What curse come to roost in a barren house / These nightmares like the screech of falcons.
Translated from Nepali by Rohan Chhetri
Multimedia
An image of a collection of eggs of various sizes.
"Animals of the Past” by Frederic A. Lucas. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Doppelgänger
By Xavier Valcárcel
she packed my suitcase and said go.
Translated from Spanish by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
Multimedia
A clocktower with a bright blue clock featuring the signs of the zodiac and a roman numeral for...
Photo by Josh Rangel on Unsplash
Me and the Stars
By Soje
Still, I have reservations about signing with a Pisces agent.
A close-up of a vinyl record player
Photo by Adrian Korte on Unsplash
Unfasten the Silk of Your Silence
By Souad Labbize
I buttress arches / curved in the style of Nubian vaults
Translated from French by Susanna Lang
MultimediaMultilingual
A woman's hand is reflected in a mirror in this black-and-white photo
Photo by Михаил Секацкий on Unsplash
When Did You Know
By Mariana Spada
When did you know / what you / were?
Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
Multilingual
Four cloth sheep hang from a child's ceiling mobile
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Poem for Children with Trouble Sleeping
By Jean D’Amérique
don’t beat yourself up / that’s why the cops have jobs
Translated from Haitian Creole by Nathan H. Dize
MultimediaMultilingual
Dark coral reefs under aquamarine ocean water
Coral reefs in McBean Lagoon, off the coast of Providencia. Photo by Felviper, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kriol Soldier
By Emiliana Bernard-Stephenson
These days Kriol is a song many people do not want to sing
Translated from San Andrés–Providencia Creole by the author
MultimediaMultilingual
Clasped hands
Photo by Eduardo Barrios on Unsplash
The Last Letter of My Body
By Alex Averbuch
gardens are in bloom: cherries, oranges, mandarins / I talked through three phone cards in three days
Translated from Russian by Anne O. Fisher
Multilingual
Family in a tunnel
Photo by Lute on Unsplash
Because of a Woman: Two Poems
By Babeth Fonchie Fotchind
I would praise your bravery when you were twenty-eight / when you boarded an airbus a330 a child in tow
Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
Shadows in a dark room
Photo by Parker Coffman on Unsplash
Ancestors: Two Poems
By Alfred Schaffer
well you’re right we’re stone dead / nothing to worry about
Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
MultimediaMultilingual
A flowering wisteria branch
Photo by Owen Yin on Unsplash
Black and White: Three Poems
By Nisrine Mbarki
they speak different languages but will learn each other’s
Translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
Multilingual
An overhead shot of an empty brick elevator shaft
Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr
vox
By Iryna Shuvalova
I want to speak like a woman who burns a pile of old paper in the street / and the flame dances but you can’t see her face
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
Multilingual