Translation
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5 Poems
art by Greta Rosso
by Greta Rosso
Translated from the Italian by Michael ChangPoem 1
Oaks, birches, the man in the van.
Tonight I dreamt of eggs
though the sleep app says I dreamt very little
two eggs were missing from the carton
I wondered who’d taken them, cooked them, eaten them,
because I certainly hadn’t
The air is so warm it’s carrying me away into a summer
composed of certainty &
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Eternal Questions
art by Soha Kabiri
by Hamed Soleiman Tabar
Translated from the Persian by Ali Asadollahi
Observation
مشاهدهگری
نشستن؛ روبروی آینه و
خیرهگی به دوردست
آیا باز میآید؟
آنکه به تماشای خویشتن رفته…
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Sleepwalking
خوابگردی
پلهپله میآید بالا اینهمه را بیپاگرد
میآید تا بگشاید دروازهی پلک، خوابگرد
میبیند در خواب، خواب که تمام نمیشوند پلهها
و هم پرسش نخستین را
نشسته بر پلهی پسین
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Echo
بازتاب
چگونه است سایه؟
بازتاب یک سوال؟
یا خود سوال دیگری که
آفتاب میکند از ما
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Hallway dark
دالان تاریک
و زندگى:
که دالان سوالى بى انتهاست
· خاصه؛ عشّاق! -
The Hunt
art by Nora Ampova
by Elena Alexieva.
Translated from the Bulgarian by Yana EllisThe fire engine arrived first. The dirt track, which the locals called Kokiche Street, was too narrow for it. The fire engine was like a toy – red, shiny and rectangular. The track wasn’t muddy, just dusty and overgrown with tall grass and all sorts of weeds. It trailed off in a self-proclaimed small dump for building materials, beyond it lay only the meadows. Even when it was silent, the fire engine commanded respect. Inside it sat four firefighters in dark-blue overalls,
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Global Voices: A conversation with Iranian poet Ali Asadollahi
by LIT Translation Editor J.P. Apruzzese
Introduction
For more than two decades, Iranian poet, translator, and editor Ali Asadollahi has been quietly expanding the possibilities of contemporary Persian poetry. The author of six poetry collections, he has written across free verse, haiku, visual poetry, and other experimental forms, guided by a restless commitment to exploration rather than any single aesthetic program. Alongside his own work, he has devoted himself to translation, introducing contemporary world poetry to Persian readers while helping bring Persian literature into conversation with audiences beyond Iran.
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Wakashu or
art by Jakob Schöning
by Tara Meister
Translated from the Austrian German by Lara WaasThe injured fawn at one of the neighboring farms. It had been lying in the field and the farmer hadn’t seen it, had run over it with the mower and severed one of its legs. They put the fawn in a box in the narrow space between stove and door. We were allowed to feed it for a while. When I asked the adults what would happen to it, they grew quiet.
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Dialogue Between Authors and Translators: an interview with Peruvian poet Roxana Crisólogo and translator Kim Jensen
by LIT Translation Editor John P. Apruzzese
Noise, in poetry, is rarely only noise. It is the residue of migration, the pressure of history, the friction between languages that refuse to settle into a single meaning. In this LIT Global Voices conversation, Peruvian–Finnish poet Roxana Crisólogo and United States poet and translator Kim Jensen meet in that charged space where poetry, politics, and translation converge, not as separate practices, but as forms of attention. We were honored to publish Jensen’s translations of Crisólogo’s poems from her collection Kauneus (Beauty) in LIT 41 (Fall 2025).
