I know, I know! A girl’s not supposed to say her age, or walk out on a job, or write a ghazal in one-line stanzas. But here you go: my poem “Waiting on Forty-Five (A Ghazal)” in the beautiful, Spring issue of The Common.
And, while you’re there, check out the amazing Arabic translation portfolio of stories from Sudan, the beautiful sonnet “Nocturne” by Ricardo Pau-Llosa, and so much more. It’s a great issue, all available for free online, for now!
The Literary Review has adapted to these strange times by slowly rolling out their July issue, “Contents May Shift,” online. Much gratitude to editor Minna Proctor for including my translation of Krystyna Dąbrowska’s fabulously biting poem “Judith.”
I’m very happy to share a number of new translations that have appeared recently, all from Tomasz Różycki’s Litery (which I am working my way through translating in its entirety–all 99 poems!). The Center for the Art of Translation presented an online exclusive of three poems as part of the launch of Two Lines 31: Hauntings. The fabulous new journal Cagibi featured the poem “Wind” in it’s July issue. And the October issue of Asymptote includes four poems, along with Tomasz reading the poems in the original Polish. Thanks to the editors of each of these journals for sharing this work!
Check out the latest issue of Kenyon Review Online for my essay in questions, “Voicing a Voice,” which explores ideas of power, originality, performance, and what we mean when we talk about the translator’s voice in the translated text. Eternal gratitude and admiration to Translations Editor Katherine Hedeen for featuring it, along with my translation of Tomasz Różycki’s poem “Third Planet.”
I’ve been translating the poetry of Polish author Tomasz Różycki for over a decade now. We first met in 2004—an auspicious year for both of us. I was on a creative writing Fulbright Fellowship in Kraków, an experience that would solidify my interest in Polish literature and send me headlong into the language. That same year, Tomasz’s fifth and most ambitious book in subject matter and form, Twelve Stations, became a true literary phenomenon, winning the prestigious Kościelski Award and quickly finding its way onto the stage and into the classroom. I was just as smitten as so many Polish readers by his unique voice. But even more so I was taken by the musicality of his other lyric poetry, with its seamless mix of deadpan humor, historical awareness, and existential longing. Since then, I’ve translated a book of selected poetry entitled The Forgotten Keys as well as his collection Colonies; I’m currently translating his most recent volume, Litery, selections of which have appeared or are forthcoming in Guernica, Kenyon Review, The High Window, Michigan Quarterly Review, Two Lines, Epiphany, and elsewhere.
In the midst of our current correspondence over minutiae of the translations, we wove in a conversation about life, writing, and the state of poetry in the world. Thanks to the wonderful editors at Music & Literature for publishing it.
I’m so pleased to have two new sonnets in the latest issue of Faultline. Thanks to the editors for including them! One recalls the victory garden at Civic Center in San Francisco, circa 2008. The other ruminates on the history of SF’s Sutro Baths—one of my all-time favorite ruins to explore. My love letters to the city as it used to be.
And I answer, “No. I’m in Poland for the poetry.”
But over beers in a basement filled with blue
shadows caught on the crumbling brick baleen
of the wall, strangers keep claiming, “I’m related to you.” […]
You can read the full sonnet, “Pleasure or Business?”—which relates my first time traveling to Poland and coming into contact my Jewish name in a whole different way—in the latest issue of Zyzzyva. I’m thrilled to have a poem appear in this venerable Bay Area journal. Growing up, it meant so much to me to know that it was being produced right where I lived; reading it inspired me in countless ways. And this issue continues to fulfill that role, with a wonderful essay by Paisley Rekdal and compelling poems by Rusty Morrison, Dean Rader, Alexandra Teague, and others.
The High Window has just published an excellent portfolio of contemporary Polish poetry called “Portraits and Places,” which includes my translations of work by Krystyna Dąbrowska and Tomasz Różycki. Here’s the fabulous full lineup:
Justyna Bargielska • Wojciech Bonowicz • Krystyna Dąbrowska • Jacek Dehnel • Jacek Gutorow • Łukasz Jarosz • Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar • Julian Kornhauser • Ewa Lipska• Artur Nowaczewski • Tomasz Różycki
It seems only fitting that my poem about the “American norm” would be published by the North American Review, the oldest literary magazine in the United States. Along with my sonnet “Immigrant Alembic,” which thinks about American identity as a process of distillation in an alembic, you can also read great work by Marsha de la O, Allison Adair, Lauren Camp and others.
Many thanks to the editors at Guernica for publishing my translation of Tomasz Różycki’s poem “Phantom” from his most recent collection, Letter by Letter. Now to translate the other 98 poems!
