Home // Issue 2
The Wicked and the Wonderful
A glimpse into Brazilian poet Fabricio Carpinejar’s new book, Inimigo Imaginário, translated by Johnny Lorenz, and selected translations from previous collections by Craig Epplin. Accompanied by all original poems in Portuguese.
Fabricio Carpinejar photographed by
Fabrício Carpinejar
Edited by by Craig Epplin
Poems about the weather, animals and plants, the family, death and language: Fabrício...
Tags: Craig Epplin, Fabrício Carpinejar
James Ragan
For James Ragan, a poet’s ultimate commitment is what he calls “the nobility of conscience.” Tradition is to be carried generously, written and spoken. Poetry travels and makes an impression wherever it lands, an intimate, powerful one.
Portrait of James Ragan by Danuta Rothschild
A Voice in Transit: the Poetry of James Ragan
Edited by Flávia Rocha
For James Ragan, a poet’s ultimate commitment...
Tags: Flavia Rocha, james ragan
Nathalie Handal
Nathalie Handal’s Poet in Andalucía is a meditation on the past and the present. It renders in poetry a region that seems to hold the pulse of our earth, and where all of our stories assemble. It is a meditation on what has changed and what insists on remaining the same, on the mysteries that trouble and intrigue us, and on a poet who continues to call us to question what makes us human.
Nathalie...
Tags: nathalie handal
Familiar Strangers: The Ghazals of Simin Behbahani
Now in her 83rd year, the Iranian poet Simin Behbahani has written 10 collections of poetry, won several human rights awards, been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, and—most recently—been named MTVU’s Poet Laureate. For most of her poetic career she has been known for reinventing the ghazal in the Persian language.
by Catherine Fletcher
“I write, I cross out, to find what I’ve...
Tags: Simin Behbahani
The Green Parakeet’s Tale
The short story ‘The Green Parakeet’s Tale’ by Nicole Idar. With illustration by Amir Shahlan Amiruddin. O charmed listener, allow me to perch on your shoulder and I will tell you my story; consider what I’m about to say a fable if you like, a tale heard by fire-light long ago.
Illustration by Amir Shahlan Amiruddin.
Story by Nicole Idar
Illustration by Amir Shahlan Amiruddin
O charmed...
Tags: Nicole Idar
Poem from Biografia de uma árvore (2002)
By Fabrício Carpinejar, translated by Craig Epplin
Ears of Dew
In eternity, no one’s judged eternal.
On this stopover, here, I think I’ll last
beyond my years, will have
another chance at winning back what I left
undone.
If forgiving is forgetting, the worst awaits:
I’ll be forgotten when redeemed.
Don’t forgive me, God. Don’t forget me.
Forgetting never freed a hostage.
Clarity won’t...
Tags: Craig Epplin, Fabrício Carpinejar
Poems from As Solas do Sol (1998)
By Fabrício Carpinejar, translated by Craig Epplin
First Hill – Poem 8
I recognized the age of the face
by the hurried smoke of the plain
- she made grow,
devious,
a snake that hardens
its skin
at the thrust of a knife.
Primeira Colina – Poema 8
Reconheci a antigüidade do rosto
pela fumaça apressada do prado
- ela encorpava,
ardilosa,
uma cobra que endurece
o couro
na estocada da faca.
Eighth...
Tags: Criag Epplin, Fabrício Carpinejar
Selected poems from Imaginary Enemy
(original: Inimigo Imaginário)
By Fabrício Carpinejar, translated by Johnny Lorenz
I Told You So
My father warned me:
“If a dog comes toward you,
keep perfectly still.”
This is how I am with bees and dogs:
I never proved the theory,
confused as I get when trying to differentiate
the approach from the attack,
the honey from the growling,
the wicked from the wonderful.
Eu Avisei
Meu pai alertava:
“Se o cão avançar,
permaneça...
Before Being a Book
(original: Antes de ser um livro, 2001)
By Fabrício Carpinejar, translated by Craig Epplin
I learned to turn knobs by opening a book. I learned to part my hair by combing its insides. The tracts I’d underline with a pencil are the letters I left for my family. I remember that remembering still persists in me.
I had to use a pocket-knife to unseal the pages. The unopened work spoke the absence of reading, and I felt pity seeing it repentant...
Tags: Craig Epplin, Fabrício Carpinejar
