Palabras Errantes Latin American Literature in Translation
Contemporary Argentine Poetry
Poems
By Carolina Orloff. Translated by Cherilyn Elston. I I am no longer who I was nor who I must be. I am barely that one who no-one wants to listen to. She who awkwardly incredulously rebounds off the fragmented reflection of her self. I leave trails like playful shadows they brush me with silk […]
Karina Macció/ Annie McDermott
Written by Karina Macció. Translated by Annie McDermott. And the answer comes that not any more, not sitting down or standing up or anything, there’s nothing there, not the ice, not even the thinnest of ice – not even the cold. There’s nobody there, I hear. The proposition is impossible. (It was always there as […]
Cecilia Maugeri/ Ben Darlington
San Telmo Written by Cecilia Maugeri. Translated by Ben Darlington. In a couple of years I won’t fit anymore I wouldn’t fit in this little cave fifteen years goatishly in a long passage way narrow tiny windows cabin bunks mirrors to comb braids doll hair in a superstar’s or monster’s dressing room adolescent […]
Emiliano Bustos/ Geoffrey Maguire
Written by Emiliano Bustos. Translated by Geoffrey Maguire. The Swimmer[1] Neither the beginning nor the end; in what remains the film is silent, black and white patience from a soaked swimmer. There is a place, almost destroyed, a house where I saw the film, the black-wood chair, the television close, rain in the […]
Romina Freschi/ Rebecca Lippman
Written by Romina Freschi. Translated by Rebecca Lippman Untitled that is the line, the invisible music, Papá I say that word and write it and the flood appears the death of Papá is what terrifies, its limits. Papá taught me that, he gave me that, a mechanical pencil is a flower, no, actually […]
Alejandro Rubio/ Maya Feile Tomes
Written by Alejandro Rubio. Translated by Maya Feile Tomes. The general The battles of the past cannot be won nor can those which go on to the bitter end, abstract and abundant, be lost. My son lives in Scotland and I live on air, my wife sews, my daughter is seeing a sailor […]
Florencia Walfisch/ Philippa Jones
Texts and artwork by Florencia Walfisch. Translated by Philippa Jones. I i cannot help it, my own weight and the impossibility; fragments of something i don’t usually count. sometimes i see a glimmer of everything although generally i splinter before the chaos. as if there had always been two poles. confusion: i only want you […]
Paula Oyazábal/ Roanne Kantor
Hanna Cash (from Written in Bed) Written by Paula Oyazábal. Translated by Roanne Kantor. 1 She smiled and allowed herself to be kissed without opening her eyes without having cried she stretched her arms, brought them together and wailed as if instead of being born she had turned off the alarm clock […]
Martín Palacio/ Kit Maude
Written by Martín Palacio. Translated by Kit Maude. I (Nigredo) (from Lessons in Anthropophagy) for Roberto Piva My brother senses the reverberations of the museums in every syllogism, comparing them to the quack of a duck, or the creak of a door. His skill is the fragment. He watches the rows of anemones, […]
Adriana Kogan/ Gemma Smith
Written by Adriana Kogan. Translated by Gemma Smith. Literature There are two ways of making literature. One is head-on, fighting tirelessly against the hair that grows back. The other is directed at the unfamiliarity of the landscape, or the mechanisms there, always leveling and building. The fact of the matter is I don’t […]
Claudia Masin/ Lucy Greaves
Written by Claudia Masin. Translated by Lucy Greaves. Graphite One full-mooned night, in the garden hammock, they sit. The mother sings a song that repeats and repeats, it could be tiresome, but the daughter doesn’t tire: enchanted, she sleeps. From that night on, for the daughter, writing will mean writing the loss of […]
Mariano Blatt/ Paul Merchant
Written by Mariano Blatt. Translated by Paul Merchant. Kevin I go on the scooter to buy bread it’s like 10am so I think a bit about god so I think a bit about Kevin I stop in the square and high-five the kids I drink mate they ask me what’s up I think […]
Luciana Caamaño/ Claire Parsons
Written by Luciana Caamaño. Translated by Claire Parsons. Pop girls pop girls punk chicks mingers moles highlights with seams with slippers dry face washed face because you put up with it all even the twee they are all sluts long distance a blank page not that tell me again everything pink everything orange […]
Jonás Gómez/ Roanne Kantor
Written by Jonás Gómez. Translated by Roanne Kantor. from the series: birds and us I had a vision of a bird crafting ornamenting crafting with its talons birds knitting a communal blanket to cover birds while they sleep a warm and feathery rest that would be a rest without nightmares free from fantasies […]
Carolina Massola/ Paul Merchant
Written by Carolina Massola. Translated by Paul Merchant. from The fish’s docility Magnolia Inventing the invisible at the mouth like the stalk lifeless by the coming spring, the sparkling blinds the ruins of pupils. When yesterday’s branches sweat magnolias and over and over you put tongue to pollen, You ancient scarab, […]
Gabriel Cortiñas/ Chris Schafenacker
From Hospital de campaña (Field Hospital) Written by Gabriel Cortiñas. Translated by Chris Schafenacker. You can’t make flour out of helmets they roasted the enemy but ate him raw his gold tooth burst in their belly patiently, they ground teeth, picked at them made tortillas: out of corn, out of rice tortillas made […]
Mercedes Araujo/ Paul Merchant
Written by Mercedes Araujo. Translated by Paul Merchant. from Travelling alone Travelling alone. The crossing will not be lightened. I was born among mountains, I pursue grass and yearn for the desert. The desert makes pilgrims equal. And the women among them? We, the women, are moved by the light which […]
swallow
swallow a (from antemano) Written by Reynaldo Jiménez. Translated by Geoffrey Maguire. the heart of a swallow entered me voiceless spring crowding as it escapes from a fist i withhold nothing that child i was never existed he who loved shepherd of lice withdrew himself castling of fears at […]
glass
glass (from esteparia) Written by Reynaldo Jiménez. Translated by Geoffrey Maguire. for José Ignacio Padilla, frater the true thirst spinetta The perception of thirst makes the person decide to act in search of water. The perception of thirst decides to act in search of the person that is water. The water of […]
reverse
reverse (from sangrado) Written by Reynaldo Jiménez. Translated by Geoffrey Maguire. Con los campos en movimiento creamos en el corazón de la materia Miguel Ángel Bustos WILL THIS WATERMARK BE THE LOUD ness that bewilders? on the page-soul swift palms scatter, releasing fertile lions, their breath lethal, just to remain on […]
Laura Petrecca/ Cherilyn Elston
Written by Laura Petrecca. Translated by Cherilyn Elston. The Days Before. I He leant against the frame and thought he had sunk it in the moment. He could no longer hear those in the next room, probably they had fallen asleep. The other side of the bar, the plateau could be seen perfectly, fluorescent […]
Untitled I
Written by Laura Petrecca. Translated by Cherilyn Elston Facing the dog’s mouth the sound is always the same the same voice, the song that falters like when you slept, squashed against glass, crowned with bees in a private plan like he who smiles in the floor that opens up who knows […]
Untitled II
Written by Laura Petrecca. Translated by Cherilyn Elston The black burns extinguish within ignited with milk by the sound of the race what are these faces tattooed with threads but all those years in a foreign city? where cold rusts like sulphur on bridges, like a girl turning like that which […]