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Poetry

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
[My mother works in a cannery]
By Luisa Castro
Love is a work of art in a can.
Translated from Galician by Laura Cesarco Eglin
Multilingual
Stress
By Antón Lopo
I suspect something in Kinue / reminds him of his own life.
Translated from Galician by Erín Moure
This, I Don’t Know
By Samuel Solleiro
These are the years directly preceding the onset of vulnerability.
Translated from Galician by Neil Anderson
Letter to Ukraine
By Danyil Zadorozhnyi
Like the border between the word leave / and the concept of returning
Translated from Russian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler & Reilly Costigan-Humes
blurry image of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in St. Petersburg behind a canal
Murashko olga, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
About Time to Smile at Homeless People
By Dinara Rasuleva
Dinara Rasuleva questions received notions of home and national identity in this poem about her relationship to Russia.
Translated from Russian by Hilah Kohen
Multilingual
Three Observations, Untitled
By Ksenia Zheludova
The most horrible things, remember this, are incremental.
Translated from Russian by Josephine von Zitzewitz
MultimediaMultilingual
Destined from Birth
By Xenia Emelyanova
Enough of their butchery.
Translated from Russian by Katherine E. Young
Multilingual
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
Elephant
By Yu Jian
O, it is a defeated god, approaching the dusk of time.
Translated from Chinese by Xin Xu
Birds in Flight, 1965
By Enrique Villasis
Not as a multitude, but as one.
Translated from Filipino by Bernard Capinpin
MultimediaMultilingual
Trial Run
By Yau Ching
nothing is certain but and taxes
Translated from Chinese by Chenxin Jiang
MultimediaMultilingual
Pegasus Autopsy
By Julio Pazos Barrera
Soon the volunteers will arrive
Translated from Spanish by Bryan Mendoza
MultimediaMultilingual
Learning Late Letters
By Nguyễn Hoàng Quyên
The dead don't let us go, I say to my friend Sirius, putting my father's letters in a drawer.
Translated from Vietnamese by the author
MultimediaMultilingual
The Red Rooster and Inevitable Saint
By Julia Wong Kcomt
“She was hot, your aunt Carmen, / she didn’t look Chinese.”
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
Multilingual
Here in Chorrillos
By Doris Moromisato
My eyes fill with rowboats
Translated from Spanish by Margaret Wright
Multilingual
Four Short Poems
By Sui-Yun
I have licked the tip of evil
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
COVID-19
By Arlinda Guma
In Germany the statue of Marx is playing chess with the family doctor
Translated from Albanian by Peter Constantine
Dawn
By Miguelángel Meza
water boils up from grouped stones, grips me.
Translated from Guaraní by Tracy K. Lewis & Miguelángel Meza
MultimediaMultilingual
My Fire
By Alba Eiragi Duarte
At light of dawn I rise and make fire, / and dry in nascent fire-gleam the space where dew once pearled.
Translated from Guaraní by Tracy K. Lewis & Alba Eiragi Duarte
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
Serpent
By Alberto Luna
I alone / plunge my roots / and outstretch my branches.
Translated from Guaraní by Susan Smith Nash & Susy Delgado
MultimediaMultilingual
[When I was born my mother]
By Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto
I practiced the art of clairvoyance, / became a sorceress, a witch, a woman
Translated from Italian by Danielle Pieratti
Multilingual
The top of a medical IV pole with an IV bag
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash
Letter to the Father
By Ricardo Domeneck
In echoes of the Kafka text from which this poem takes its name, a queer man longs to confront his homophobic father for a lifetime of injury in this poem by Berlin-based writer and artist Ricardo Domeneck.
Translated from Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan
In Praise of the Nude Body
By Mutsuo Takahashi
They’re as naked as the day they were born
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
Gifts
By Mutsuo Takahashi
The wisdom gathered from those wanderings is far deeper / Than that of ancient Greece
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
Post-Op
By Mariana Spada
somewhere in between the promise and the certainty of rain / the bounds of things / —all things, including you— / are blurred
Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
On Masks
By Yu Jian
take custody of my mouth
Translated from Chinese by Shuyu Guo
notes from this city
By Carolina Pihelgas
the window frames have become national borders, the doorknob a border guard.
Translated from Estonian by Adam Cullen
Multilingual
On Beginnings
By Filinto Elísio
Inert stone, atomic, / nuclear before life.
Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar
Multilingual
Lisbon – 1971
By Arménio Vieira
In point of fact, Lisbon was not waiting there [to greet us.
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker & Shook
Caviar, Champagne, and Fantasy
By Arménio Vieira
The Esplanada, thick with the scent of fragrant [DDT
Translated from Portuguese by Eric M. B. Becker & Shook
Song for My Father
By Filinto Elísio
The music played / on Apollo 11, it turned out, was “Georgia / On My Mind,” sung by Ray Charles.
Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar
Multilingual
From the Red Desert
By Maria Borio
I write to you from the red zone.
Translated from Italian by Danielle Pieratti
Multilingual
Shelter in Poems: Poetry to Break the Isolation of Social Distancing
By the Editors of Words Without Borders
Words Without Borders is leaning into poetry's ability to fill the void of isolation.
Notes from Kolkata
By Sonnet Mondal
”Amnesia shrouds a generation.”
Translated from Bengali by the author
The Poem
By Mohsen Emadi
the poem is riding a bicycle; / trembling and in haste.
Translated from Persian by Sholeh Wolpé
Learn
I Spat Out This Poem
By Yasmeen Hameed
I swallowed fire / And forgot you were an ocean.
Translated from Urdu by Mehr Afshan Farooqi
No, My Veil Is Stained
By Parveen Shakir
Flowers will slip from a torn veil.
Translated from Urdu by Adeeba Shahid Talukder
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
[Only the madman has stayed behind in the city]
By Ciwan Nebî
What does he have to fear?
Translated from Kurdish (Kurmanji) by Shook & Zêdan Xelef
Multilingual
[I needed to wake up at 3:00 in the morning to make it to work]
By Ciwan Qado
I proceeded with caution / Like a marble inching toward the line
Translated from Kurdish (Kurmanji) by Shook & Zêdan Xelef
Multilingual
[I speak to]
By Cihan Hesen
silence sullen-faced fate reaches my ears
Translated from Kurdish (Kurmanji) by Shook & Zêdan Xelef
Multilingual
Water
By Voltaire Oyzon
Three or four days / he hangs out in our house.
Translated from Waray by Merlie M. Alunan
Multilingual
Juggler
By Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles
How does one grasp making / sense of timing when to hurl and when to catch?
Translated from Filipino by Kristine Ong Muslim
Multilingual
A Planned Brief Documentary on a Teenage Boy in a Badjao Village
By M. J. Cagumbay Tumamac
Like a fish / in an aquarium, you are a source of distress and distraction.
Translated from Filipino by Kristine Ong Muslim
MultimediaMultilingual
Birds of Paradise, 1965
By Enrique Villasis
In the mind, a flock of birds, feathers from an unshakable, shadowy thing.
Translated from Filipino by Bernard Capinpin
Multilingual
from “Melismas”
By Marlon Hacla
What / are the things we need to prepare?
Translated from Filipino by Kristine Ong Muslim
Multilingual
Important Announcement
By Ahmed Fouad Negm
Upsidedownistan here.
Translated from Arabic by Elliott Colla
Tomboy
By Claudia Masin
I don’t understand how we walk around the world / ​as if there were a single way for each of us
Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
MultimediaMultilingual
Pillow
By Lee Young-ju
“Pillow” is a poem by 2019 Poems in Translation Contest winner Lee Young-ju, translated into English by Jae Kim.Listen to Lee Young-ju read her poem “Pillow” in the original Korean.…
Translated from Korean by Jae Kim
Multilingual
Roommate, Woman
By Lee Young-ju
On waking, I see my body has been rearranged.
Translated from Korean by Jae Kim
MultimediaMultilingual
An Apocryphal History of the Discovery of Migration, or The Sacrifice of the Pfeilstörchen
By Alba Cid
it’s awful of me to interrupt, but I just / need you to understand how certain kinds of wounds can be useful.
Translated from Galician by Jacob Rogers
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Cloth Birds
By Dorothy Tse
There's no cloth hawker in the bazaar / willing to make dirty deals
Translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce
MultimediaMultilingual
Phone Call
By Tahir Hamut
On a mattress / amidst an armful of hair / a beautiful woman tosses and turns
Translated from Uyghur by Joshua L. Freeman
MultimediaMultilingual
A Night Sama
By Tahir Hamut
Their wailing won’t let me sleep, won’t let me sleep . . .
Translated from Uyghur by Darren Byler & Anonymous Uyghur Translator
MultimediaMultilingual
I Want to Walk Toward the Altar of the Lord
By Li Hao
my body, / like a spoon, here on this earth, sweetly scoops out / my brain.
Translated from Chinese by Eleanor Goodman
Multilingual
Absent, Or Not Absent
By Tsering Woeser
right in the center, / sat the completely empty dharma throne, / richly decorated, the heart’s dream waiting / like a balloon floating through desire
Translated from Chinese by Ian Boyden
Multilingual
Angels
By Li Hao
I see your unfamiliar riverbank / and walk toward you.
Translated from Chinese by Eleanor Goodman
Multilingual
Perhaps: Love Poems
By Xi Wa
I dare not use mortal eyes to contemplate you
Translated from Chinese by Chloe Garcia Roberts
Multilingual