Three Poems by A Hua, translated from the Chinese by Xuelan Su and Kathy Z. Fan

Time Flows Like Water

Use growth rings to tell the story. Get pine resin to seal it in history.
Leave the stump for egrets to perch on.

At Weishan Lake, as spring winds blow away the chaos of March,
wetlands burst with birdsong and flower-scent,

leaves jostled by rain and pearls of dew become like small boats that bob and sway.

… later, after lake waters recede,

art by Mia Broecke, "eye" 

by Francesca Diano, translated from the Italian by Laura Valeri 

The two di Franco sisters lived alone. The younger one, all the same old, was rather short, with a big long nose, eyes like two boiled eggs, and hair dyed a brick red color. The older sister was tall and lanky, with white hair so thin that it showed the rosy hue of her scalp, wore her hair in a bun – a tiny little bun that looked like a bird’s nest. They had a big beautiful house downtown,

photo by Gerard Franciosa

photo by John Peter Apruzzese 

Where are you going? Not far from here.

Further down the slope of the corridor.

There despair will be defeated.

I’ve nothing against it but father’s dead body.

Poetry (I still don’t know what it is exactly)

and the shadow that changes its names since my birth.

מּוזִיקַת הַּנָתִיב הָרָחָב

שרון אַס

לְאָן אַּתְ הֹולֶכֶת?