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Poetry

[Since nobody was there anyway]
By Hans Faverey
it's time for a walk once again / along the brink of the beach, where all / of a sudden the woods held back
Translated from Dutch by Francis R. Jones
[One fine day it was night]
By Hans Faverey
It was too late / to unbait my hook.
Translated from Dutch by Francis R. Jones
[If later, or sooner, it is]
I might as well go to sea: /to let oneself be blown away.
Translated from Dutch by Francis R. Jones
[“Then they went away too”]
By Hans Faverey
Hardly had I known them. / I also hardly stayed behind.
Translated from Dutch by Francis R. Jones
[As simple as a drop of water]
By Hans Faverey
As simple as a drop of water, / as clear as a splinter of birch,
Translated from Dutch by Francis R. Jones
Irreversible Landscapes
By Luljeta Lleshanaku
Irreversible is the riveron whose backdead leaves swirl.Irreversible are words-the dust of roadsmingled with breath, warm breaththat sticks to our trembling lipslike fog to a boat.Irreversible is this…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
The Island You and I
living on an islandfar from cities with traffic lights and people.Outside we hear the rustlingsof a bed of reedswhere the wind with its toothless mouth blowsluring in tides.A boat is moored on the shorea…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
February Sky
By Luljeta Lleshanaku
Large, gray, sprawledlike an old elephant.Winter is ending.Low, sloping roofs are overturned boatsslumbering along the shores of drowsiness.Twenty years of an oak tree’s lifeis burned instantly…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
The Postman
By Luljeta Lleshanaku
He comes to me every day with a cruel bounce in his stepwith eyes darting like little green flames—the town postman in a heavy, damp coatjovially announcing he has nothing for me.I see his blue uniform…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
The Cinema
By Luljeta Lleshanaku
Without failSundays at the cinemawere always rainy daysbig black umbrellasclashing against the ticket booth.The doorman among the torn stubslooked like a watercolorhung crookedly on a kitchen wall.We…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
It’s Not Time For . . .
By Luljeta Lleshanaku
It’s not time for a change.As long as I can rememberit’s never been time for a change.Like cars that screech to a halthouses standpoised in their old breeding groundof rotten acacia leaves.From…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
Groans
By Faraj Bayraqdar
1Here I am you aloneIn this mad, gapingHellHere I am you alone and death altogetherWith its predators and its seers and the informersPerhaps I am arriving atThe limit of my possibilitiesFor you to arrive…
Translated from Arabic by Shareah Taleghani
Shadows on the Snow
By Luljeta Lleshanaku
The snow comes late this year. Violet shadowsdoze like shepherds rounda white fire.The swaying shadow of a fence looks like a woman’s clavicle—a woman who dreams of her lover’s snowy journey…
Translated from Albanian by Shpresa Qatipi & Henry Israeli
An Alphabetical Formation
By Faraj Bayraqdar
Alif You’re not beginning . . .It’s an eternity, you know . . .I mean, the ever-after, you knowNo matter, then.Raise your cavalryBut don’t set out for the horizon,Or the sea . .…
Translated from Arabic by Shareah Taleghani
[It is not fated that, in this world]
By Marina Tsvetaeva
It is not fated that, in this world,The strong join the strong.Thus, Siegfried parted from Brunhild,A sword stroke instead of a marriage.In the allied brotherly hatred–Like buffalos!–rock…
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman
Again: In the Intervals of Sleep
By Gennady Aygi
what is watchingalways comes to an end: and the day! and the world! . . it is the uniquethe unceasing – is it over its featuresthat the soul glides: like dust! – and…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
Consolation: Roses
By Gennady Aygi
to N. A.in your presence even the toesare as if they remembered! and the mind more stronglypierces our headin your presence! and together perhaps you are thatwhenceseparatingthey drew out: of…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
Third Grasshopper
By Gennady Aygi
(after the “Grasshoppers” of VelimirKhlebnikov and e.e. cummings) to my son Andreygrasshopper-sign flickersover field under heaven! – (sign to Reason – be on guard!be…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
And: Like a White Page
By Gennady Aygi
in dust is no vowel. . . death is a sound: a shout – to God?he – in the surface of dust: is what then – a gleam?oh not treasures of sacrifice: nor representation! . .…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
Field – All Year – Out of the Window
By Gennady Aygi
to W. Woroczylskibehind my back – it seemed – were islands: of the terror-idea! – as if a certain chillwas spread – for a year of this life: were they places –…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
Place: A Beer-Stall
By Gennady Aygi
oh clearlywith gathered forceeverywhere it shows itself: skyglow of the yearlike features of the land: drawing:from everywhere: any: fire: for incandescence! – and this is no shout!but…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
Work: Morning: Papers
By Gennady Aygi
to V. S. but you are not the surrounding of such a onebut a stair in yourself where poverty is like skyglow: oh ice-holes of illness! as if by someonethey were always directed: with meaning!…
Translated from Russian
[“Well, let’s fly . . .”]
By Larissa Miller
“Well, let’s fly . . .”“Where to and why?”“Just fly to nowhereafter that cloud . . .”Just let’s rush off nowhere, nowhere,let’s listen to the wires…
Translated from Russian by Richard McKane
[Fate’s little pictures]
By Larissa Miller
Fate’s little picturesdrawn by a most slender pen,will hang in the damp airon a little spider’s web.The rains drawwith their own flying handwriting,and the wind shuffleslight strokes like…
Translated from Russian by Richard McKane
Face Thereafter
By Gennady Aygi
whole –with a whisper of ordering of the firmament and as out of the shining facein a time of sorrow –mine –I create it and by fireconcealing images of the raceit is lit 1965The…
Translated from Russian by Peter France
[All this moves and rustles]
By Larissa Miller
All this moves and rustles,plays and waves,dances blindly to someone’s pipeand crowns someone’s thought.It plays and singsand beckons with an apple branchand at times sweetly wounds the soul,at…
Translated from Russian by Richard McKane
Trees VI
By Marina Tsvetaeva
Neither with paint, nor with a brush.Light is his kingdom: his hair is gray.The red leaves tell lies.Here light tramples color.Color is trampled by light.The heel of light crushes the chest of color.Isn’t…
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman
[The wind revels in the quiet night…]
By Larissa Miller
The wind revels in the quiet night . . .The Lord has marked the coming dayin a black draft, so as to recreate iton a clean white copy, and the skywill be bright in a momentand will flare in a crimson…
Translated from Russian by Richard McKane
Trees IX
By Marina Tsvetaeva
What revelations,What truthsWhat do you rustle of,The floods of green?With sacramentsOf what raving sibyl,What do you rustle of,What do you rave about?What’s in your fluttering?But I know–you…
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman
From “Mozart’s Third Brain”
By Göran Sonnevi
LVDemocracy’s secret    In free, general elections, with secret ballotsThere, too, is music’s concealment, its inaccessibility, eyeto eye    Where coercive power, over…
Translated from Swedish by Rika Lesser
[“La vie,” Edith Piaf sings]
By Larissa Miller
“La vie,” Edith Piaf sings,“La vie, la vie,” seize the moment . . .And this voice is eternally rightand there’s no threat of it being buried in oblivion.“La vie,”…
Translated from Russian by Richard McKane
[Bring to me all that’s of no use to others]
By Marina Tsvetaeva
Bring to me all that’s of no use to others:My fire must burn it all!I lure life, and I lure deathAs weightless gifts to my fire.Fire loves light-weighted things:Last year’s brushwood, wreathes,…
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman
Trees VIII
By Marina Tsvetaeva
Someone’s heading for a fatal victory.Trees gesture like tragedies.Sacrificial dance of Judea!Trees flutter like sacramentals.This–a conspiracy against the era:Against weight, number, fraction,…
Translated from Russian by Nina Kossman
Five Crosses
By Saadi Youssef
We stopped in five stations and did not leave a souvenir.We did not shiver there, or get drunk, or strum a guitar.Five rivers of sand on the guitar.Five crosses made of silence:You are sad;I wipe the…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
A Shiver
By Saadi Youssef
Hold me, comfort meThe stones are nothing but pain tonightHold me to your breastso that I ramble:The stars are gray as ashand the road to themis ablaze with light.1993
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
The Jazz Corner
A moment after midnightevery nightjazz begins to soak the Jazz Cornerlike new winelike village wineA moment after midnightevery nighta woman descends a dark staircaseto sing Brazilor balconies in candlelightor…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Silence
By Saadi Youssef
Winds that do not blow in the evening,and winds that do not blow at dawnhave burdened me with a book of boughs.I see my cry in the silence.Night descends, blue, between staircases and stars. I seeblue…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Departure ’82
By Saadi Youssef
Soonall the rooms will be closed,and beginning with the basement,we will leave themoneby oneuntil we reach the gunson the roof.We will leave them too . . . like the roomsand go onto search in our bloodor…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Koofa
By Saadi Youssef
We did not name it so that it would become a city.We came to it thirstystarvedlimping on blazing sands,blinded by sun glow.We cut the world from Mecca to the palace of Naaman.We cut the world with a sworduntil…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
The Bird’s Last Flight
By Saadi Youssef
When I enter the earth’s nestcontentedand glad,my wings resting,I will free my eyelids so not to seethe trees swaying nearer.Do not cry over me.I said do not cry.If you wish, remember that my wingsare…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
New Year
By Nazik al-Mala’ika
New Year, move on. There is the path / to lead your footsteps.
Translated from Arabic by Rebecca C. Johnson
The Other Body / The Other Home
By Adonis
Migration is another name for exile made gentler by the alphabet.
Translated from Arabic by Ammiel Alcalay & Kamal Boullata
2023-February-Love-Song-for-Words-Al-Malaika-Johnson-Feature
Valentine Puzzle Purse, Anonymous, British or American, 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Richard Riddell, 1981.
Love Song for Words
By Nazik al-Mala’ika
Why do we fear words? / If their thorns have once wounded us, / then they have also wrapped their arms around our necks / and shed their sweet scent upon our desires.
Translated from Arabic by Rebecca C. Johnson
A Stranger by the Gulf (1953)
By Badr Shakir as-Sayyab
The wind gasps with the midday heat,         like a nightmare in the late afternoonAnd on the masts, it continues to fold, to spread for departureThe gulf is crowded with them–laborers…
Translated from Arabic by Shareah Taleghani
Nothing but Iraq (March 29, 2003)
By Mahmoud Darwish
I remember as-Sayyab screaming into the Gulf in vain:Iraq, Iraq. Nothing but Iraq.And nothing but an echo repliesI remember as-Sayyab, in that Sumerian spaceA woman triumphed over the sterility of mistShe…
Translated from Arabic by Shareah Taleghani
To Marina Tsvetaeva
Many a one has sunk in the abyss of horrid silence, and you among them, slender ghost whom I evoked with tools that are improbable, a little pile of grammars and of dictionaries, or now, with more urgency…
Elegy
By Ahmad Shamlou
And so we repeat the round / of night and day
Translated from Persian by Zara Houshmand
Learn
A couple at the tomb of the poet Hafez.
By Adam Jones. License: CC BY 2.0.
The Fish
By Ahmad Shamlou
I think my heart has never been / like this / so warm and red.
Translated from Persian by Zara Houshmand
Learn
Existence
By Ahmad Shamlou
If this is life—how pure!
Translated from Persian by Zara Houshmand