Translation
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3 poems by Saadi Youssef
art by Catherine McGuire
translated from the Iraqi Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Mukalla, Hadramout
A bird calls us to prayer,
as if the clouds here were diaphanous.
A wooden ship hoists its moorings,
its sailors wrapped in sarongs,
their shouts thick in the humid air.
The ambling steps in the women’s bazaar have gone home,
and the Sha’hr harbor melts in the sea’s expanse.
It was dawn, Mihhdar has just finished singing.
Look at how he lies on the cotton rug fast asleep
like a tired child. -
Global Voices Interviews
In the latest installment of LIT’s Global Voices interview series, Québecoise poet, translator, and scholar Chloé Savoie-Bernard speaks on fragmentation, feminist and queer legacies, the politics of opacity, and the power of poetry to make kingdoms from ruins.
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A Stranger in the Woods
art by Roberto Biadi
Written and translated from the Italian by Livio Milanesio
As soon as I turn my phone back on, after landing at Berlin Schönefeld Airport, it notifies me of five missed calls. All from my father. I call him back immediately, fearing the worst.. He answers, with his usual calm voice. He’s surprised I’m already in Berlin—people from his generation never really considered flying an option. He urges me not to tell anyone why I’m here. He’s afraid, he says, that this time the Germans will come after me.
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Life on Three Wheels
Six prose poems by E.M. Palitha Edirisooriya
Translated into English from Sinhala by samodH Porawagamage and Kasun Pathirage
SEPTEMBER 04Lionel Ranwala mahaththaya’s shows and speeches are superb. I came on a hire and stayed on to watch.
Everyone remembers the cake and the bottle on their birthday. Who remembers the birthday as the day their mother went through unimaginable pain? Why have we become brown sahibs? Fine–import the guitar from Germany, but let’s play Asian music.
At the end, Ranwala Sir sold CDs and cassette tapes for cash.
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Bought Woman
art by C. Christine Fair
by Veena Verma, translated from the Punjabi by C. Christine Fair
The entire village was abuzz. A short, stygian Bengali woman had appeared in the home of Driver Maggar Singh, the local truck driver. She had come to Desu Ram’s shop to buy dal and rice in the morning.
The customers milling about gushed forth salaciously, “No one has seen this woman in the village before.”
The woman grabbed a packet of dal and rice and left. Three men began to follow her,
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Global Voices Interviews
At LIT, we see translation as the essence of all writing – whether it’s translating across languages or transforming life into words, images, and sound. From the individual to the collective, from the intimate to the universal: in the end, it’s all about translation. We are thrilled to share this newest, brilliant installment of Global Voices from Indonesia.
