Of Sea, Sponge, Ant, and Prayer: On Translating María Baranda
"For Baranda, narration is not of social relations but of the essential. Her cry is resoundingly of sea, sponge, ant, and prayer, as related in rapture. It’s for her… More
Nightmare Running on a Meadow of Absolute Light
One of the leading Mexican poets of the generation born in the 1960s and a powerful presence in all of Latin American poetry, Baranda is best known for her… More
Lamentations of a Coconut Tree
This short story from the 2014 Neustadt Prize-winner was published after years of civil war following independence from Portugal in 1975 and is a chronicle of Mozambique's rebirth. Becker… More
Everything Full of Weight: On Translating Mia Couto
"My great satisfaction in translating this collection is not simply to be able to propose a different way of looking at our own familiar world, but to be part… More
Kaleidoscopic Vision: On Translating Agustín Fernández Mallo
"Fernández Mallo simply needs to be heard in English because he has become so important in Spain, all the while representing a great interest in and awareness of globalization.… More
Pixel Flesh
These poems are excerpted from Pixel Flesh, a haunting translation of prose poetry collection by Agustín Fernández Mallo, who has pioneered an important shift in contemporary Spanish writing and… More
Simorgh, Thirty Birds: On Translating Farid ud-Din Attar
"As a poet, I believe that the act of translation is that of recreation. A translator of poetry can become the unwitting destroyer of poems, or alternately, a creator… More
The Conference of the Birds
Farid ud-Din Attar is one of the greatest Sufi mystic poets of Iran. Sholeh Wolpé's artful and exquisite modern translation brings one of the definitive masterpieces of Persian literature… More
Turns of Verse: On Translating Per Aage Brandt
"There’s hardly anything in the world that fails to interest [Per Aage Brandt], and nothing that he fails to make more interesting once he’s written about it." More