Harmon, Fagan, Buckley, et. al.
Bradley Harmon on translating 2 Poems by Katarina Frostenson: A poem, like many poems, that upon and after reading infuses my mind with erratic thoughts and surrounds my body with a kinetic aura. A poem, like many poems, that I at once feel like I understand and simultaneously know that I never will. A poem, this poem, that I have
Collins, Orlowsky, Bouwsma, et. al.
Billy Collins on “Eyes on the Prize”: I cannot help recognize this poem as yet another example of my habit of playing the role of the idle poet, the dawdler who has nothing to do but daydream while kicking fallen acorns. That persona enters poetry history with Wordsworth and Co. who were lucky enough to live in the age of
Cardona, Bassen, Filkins, et. al.
Hélène Cardona on translating Maram Al-Masri’s poems: The Abduction refers to an autobiographical event in Al-Masri’s life. When, as a young Arab woman living in France, she decides to separate from her husband with whom she has a child, the father kidnaps the baby and returns to Syria. The Abduction is the story of a woman who is denied the
Culhane, basta, Cisewski, et. al.
Brian Culhane on “On Not Translating Polish Poets”: I once read that Ashbery would ask his students to translate a poem from a language they didn’t know. My own poem rests on the improbable premise that a would-be translator’s lack of Polish could lead to a “peculiar intensity,” one ironically derived from ignorance. The poets mentioned— Herbert, Szymborska, Zagajewski—are ones
Donovan, Freeman, Lindsay, et. al.
Gregory Donovan on “The Jeweled Eye”: I despair of being able to write adequately about someone I love. One day in my office I heard my wife begin her shower, and I pictured her there, hot water streaming over her—she says it’s the only time she feels warm during winter, the dead season and its bone-chilling cold she hates. I
Chappell & Murphy, Bakken, Moss, et. al.
Carrie Chappell and Amanda Murphy on translating Sandra Moussempès: The feminist and multi-voiced dimensions of Sandra Moussempès’ work inspired us to collaborate on translating Cassandre à bout portant (Flammarion, January 2021). As academic and poet, respectively, and as two women originally from the United States, we felt especially drawn to the plurality her poems insist are a part of women’s
Zwart, Wellman, Rivard, et. al.
Jane Zwart on “Half the Time”: This poem owes its existence partly to Amit Majmudar, who invited me into a collaborative experiment called “mirror writing.” I have found the simple process magic. Amit and I take turns sending one another titles over email. For every new title, each of us improvises, solo, a poem to suit the title, sending it
Park, Andrews, Fried, et. al.
Suphil Lee Park on translating Im Yunjidang: Korea has a long history of diglossia and linguistic oppression, from its wide use of Chinese characters for writing up until the mid-twentieth century to the Japanese colonial rule that banned the use of the Korean language in public. Back in the day, women were not given a voice, let alone celebrated. Most
Pollock, Friman, Lehmann, et. al.
James Pollock on “Dryer”: “Dryer” is one of four dozen poems about everyday technology that make up my book Durable Goods (Véhicule Press, September 2022). I was inspired by Keats’s ideal of the chameleon poet who enters into things in imagination and takes part in their being. There is a great tradition of Dinggedichte that includes not only Keats but
Hassain, Schwartz, Hardwick, et. al.
Jahangir Hossain on writing “Lover Rain”: The year was 2015/2016. I was present at the Saturday Literature Chat of the Bangladesh Writers’ Club. Seeing a well-dressed woman there, I thought her outfit was not very beautiful. It was ‘Rainy Season’ then. I thought to myself: If it were raining, I would wash all her outfits and decorate her again with
Buckley, Levitin, Smith, et. al.
Christopher Buckley on “Heisenberg’s Principle”: Again the argument of science vs. faith/fate . . . the two main tenents of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle fitting in quite well, to my mind, and helping to illustrate the facts as they stack up against our beliefs. Since the late ‘80s I’ve looked to science and cosmology for corroboration to my doubts and dialectic,
Rosenthal, Stratton, Aizenberg, et. al.
Mira Rosenthal on translating Tomasz Różycki: The poems “A Room” and “Wild Strawberries” come from Tomasz Różycki’s tenth book, Litery, forthcoming in my English translation from Archipelago Books in 2023. The collection builds like a detective novel, following a lieutenant on the hunt for any clues that might lead 21st-century human beings out of a sense of emptiness and despair. Set against a
