Category: translated poetry
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A Celebration of Poetry for International Women’s Day 2020
Papyrus Fragment It darts, bares a blaze of underwing to plain sight; this endless fragile need to make a mark, to come to light Papyrus Fragment is © Annette Skade ‘Secrets of a cartographer’s wife’ by Katrina Dybzynska The cartographer’s wife never told him about her contributions to his maps. A few tiny islands…
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The Blue Hare (An Giorria Gorm) and other poems by Jackie Gorman
The Blue Hare Stepping off the path, a silver car rushes by. I never saw it coming, yet I felt the ground give way. I knelt down within myself. The hare that lives in my mind, snug in her thick coat and safe in her wide-open eyes, breaks free and runs across me. She purrs,…
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“Dreams of a Happy Ending” by Farideh Hassanzadeh
Dreams of a Happy Ending I throw my nightmare into your arms with all my shaking and sweat, but you stick your hand into my heart to pluck my boobs. I throw my fear of losing words into a book, but you throw your shirt on the clouded pages to let me know “It is…
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“Pomegranate heart” and other poems by Miriam Calleja
Four million years of eyes Heady honeysuckle sweat Skin ripe fruit Lips floating Scents Four millions years Of eyes (first published in Pomegranate Heart by Edebooks) Pomegranate heart She counts the seeds Of my pomegranate heart The same, always the same No matter how many times she counts. Her fingers are stained And though she…
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microliths 240-241|246 by Paul Celan
Excerpts from microliths by Paul Celan translated by Pierre Joris ____________ [These are Celan’s first notes toward the conference project “On the Darkness of Poetry” which remained unfinished.] Pjoris 240 240.1 || Mysticism as wordlessness Poetry as form 241.2 The poem is inscribed as the figure of the whole language, but language remains invisible; what is…
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How to Hide Unhappiness / Cum Ascundem Nefericirea by Ștefan Manasia translated by Clara Burghelea
The Miracle The red leaves struggle in the glass- angels whose name I don’t know I press them among the pages of the dead poet’s book, whose name I promise to unlearn. A little water (glittering like vodka) and their torture seems attractive to me. From the bus, I showed Estera the red tree like…
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Poems by Valentina Colonna translated by Pawel Sakowski
Ho raccolto un’ombra quando salivo le scale. Stava giusto scendendo. Mentre toccavo le tegole ho perso un’idea. Rotolava avvolta tra i panni. Poi il vento ha smosso le fila: è scivolata travolta di vuoti. Il carro stava giusto passando. – Flatus Fluit Ad Fortunae Fossam – Ho appena cambiato l’acqua ai…
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A Celebration of Women’s Poetry for International Women’s Day 2018
‘A History of Love Letters’ by Seanín Hughes Miss said every time I told a lie, Baby Jesus had a nail hammered into his hand. She said I had a sad mouth, corners downturned, pointing to hell. Stephen with the p-h had a mouth like sunshine. I gave him a token: a tiny toy…
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Further excerpts from Paul Celan’s ‘microliths’
16 He who transforms himself wants, being the same, to become someone else. Shape = semblance 17 There is no such thing as the Ibolithic, you say! Well, where would we wind up if we agreed with that? For then the Lithic wouldn’t exist either, the basic Lithic, this idiom worked up with such great…
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Merry Christmas 2017 Dear Poethead Readers!
Poethead will return in January 2018, moving into its tenth year platforming women poets, their editors and their translators. I will be reading and responding to your submissions in the intervening period. Thank you for your emails, your queries, your support and responses over these 9 years. It is heartening and wonderful to have such…
Chris Murray 