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Poetry

A photo of a valley in Aloued, Morocco.
Photo by Omar from Unsplash.. Public domain.
My Language Is Tamazight
By Ali Sadqi Azaykou
Ali Sadqi Azaykou writes an ode to Tamazight and the multitudes within it.
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
Poet Mohamed Ouagrar turns the mirror’s reflective qualities upon the writing self.
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
Fadma Farras claims the world as her own in this defiantly assured poem.
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
The song of the mosque and the song of the church are two birds falling upward at dawn.
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
If the light cries at what I write / it doesn’t mean that I’m alive
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
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
A sunset behind a line of trees
Photo by Niels Weiss on Unsplash
vesper
By Iryna Shuvalova
do you see—the trees have gathered at the gates in the twilight
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
Multilingual
White foam swirling on a river's surface
Photo by kallern, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
I float on worry
By Rania Mamoun
I live on the lip, split / between slipping & holding
Translated from Arabic by Yasmine Seale
Illuminated highways in Kyiv at night
Photo by Levi Kyiv on Unsplash
a moving grove
By Iryna Shuvalova
go escape while you can go escape
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
MultimediaMultilingual
Rows of headstones in a cemetery
Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Name Day
By Adam Zagajewski
I wasn’t sure how to pray for the dead / in such tumult, in the shriek of recollection.
Translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh
A colored floral illustration on paper
Detail of “Leopard Bearing Lion's Order to Fellow Judges", Folio 51 recto from a Kalila wa Dimna. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, Gift of Alice Heeramaneck, 1981
All It Seems
By Befaam
Even grief now becomes / a kind of delight, or so it seems.
Translated from Gujarati by Meena Desai
Multilingual
a barefoot man chained to a post
Photo via social media
Khodanur
By Mahdi Ganjavi
Oh Khodanur, / Your half-finished dance / Makes walking on earth unjust.
Translated from Persian by the author
A black wire bird against a colorful background
Photo via Khashayar “Kes” Mohammadi
Day by Day
By Saeed Tavanaee Marvi
The little girl told her mother: / I wish my hair was made of fire
Translated from Persian by Khashayar “Kes” Mohammadi
Tree of life carving at the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque
Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ahmedabad
By Bharat Trivedi
Those days of leaping carefree into the Sabarmati / Are long gone
Translated from Gujarati by Mira Desai
A large wave crashes in a stormy ocean
Photo by Todd Turner on Unsplash
The Strength of Water
By Gawani Gaongen
“Do not make the water angry,” they say.
Translated from Kankanaey by the author
Multilingual