Translation Tuesday – Japanese Poetry It’s almost November. The nights are cold, crisp, and brutal here in the North-East – but the skies are glorious, and the colours… Oh! Join me for a cuppa whilst I share today’s autumnal offering: translated pieces from a volume called Japanese Poetry Now, remade into English by Thomas Fitzimmons. Enjoy! Rue Collinge shares pieces from Japanese Poetry Now, 1971, trans. Thomas Fitzimmons Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
Slovakian Spring – Part 2 Dear Readers, We’re not certain how, but our second instalment of Slovakian Poetry from our Spring season has disappeared into the aether – which is a pity, as these poets are well worth the read! (You can still see Part 1 & Part 3 under Translations, so make sure to check those out whilst you’re here.) Today we are publishing Part 2 afresh, and hope it brightens your Tuesday – we know it has done so for us! What a gorgeous way to kick off our Autumn Season of the magazine! Enjoy! ‘people / clays / permafrost’ by Ola Glustik I was seven when my neighbour / father of four children decided to leave / at his home in the living room / and then the other / in the barn a shot in twelve other / a rope in an apple tree it was always minus twenty outside / beaten,barren land /an economic crisisand at home at the table the presence / a tea spoon you can’t bend We / the children of this street had the courage to play only in the cemetery / to prepare a grave space / to serve a simple ceremony / the end We remained silent for a long time / To this day we don’t speak /since childhood, we’ve had our mouths full of dirt and stones Translated by Natalie Nera ‘The Inextricable Blade’ by Erik Markovič The salt of the earth, unbroken I can vouch for forgiveness in the woods, in the lakesin the shells of oysters, and in the womb of a lightsaber. I am without the earth; I have not grown rootswith my hands in your hair, with my tonguein your mouth, not on the Moon, I only flyand pity the wide and clear field beneath meYour field, that is neither tasteless nor flavoured with spices,unbroken by my grace, untainted with my blood. You cannot separate your arms from your body, and stretch them towards me,although you would love to fly after me, like your soul, whose doveI caught under my shirt when the body gave up.And from her into the earth it flew until it got rotten during the flight and turned into black fertile soil. From the breast of your burnt hills, you speak of your desire silentlyhigh up in the trees, Seeds in whose name the branch does not sprout out, for only above your head, unmoving, it grows wild in brambles. Translated by Natalie Nera; from the collection ‘Ikoncikosť. Prestupovanie Slnka’ ‘Weight of the Balance’ by Erik Ondrejička Weight of the balancein quiet dance of leavesin a body of ash in orbital curvesof a path in rough sketchthat’s vanished in a flash Decodes delicacyso it may be purewith hardly a word said and from lead createslike an alchemistever newly lead Translated by John Minahane ‘sulphur’ by Martina Straková touches our sun-tanned bodiesin the spotswhere shinglesimpress their shape we go barefootto make us feel againthat we’re still livingthat nothing of this is shamhapticallywe sink our roots at the most trusty pointswhere salt means pulpand water is dim and cold Translated by John Minahane Meet the Poets! Ola Glustik (b. 1987, Slovakia) is a poet, publicist and media specialist. Currently working on the manuscript of the third poetry collection called Body and (con)text. Part of manuscript was awarded in prestigious czechoslovak competition Básne SK/CZ 2021. Ola is going to participate in the Spring Edition of the Visegrad Literary Residency Program in 2022 in Bratislava.Her second book Atlas of biological women (2017) was awarded with the premium prize by the Slovak Literary Fund and with The M. Rúfus premium prize. This book was published partly in Czech (in anthology Být knihou a v rukou se ti otevřít, Nakl. P. Mervart, 2019) and in Romanian (Atlasul femeilor biologice, frACTalia, 2020, transl.: Mircea Dan Duta). She debuted with the collection of poems called Placed into trees (2014).Her poems and publicistic texts were published online and in magazines in Slovakia (Rozum, Fraktál, Glosolália, Knižná revue), in the Czech Republic (Ravt, Revue Weles, Cadena Magica, Poli5), in Romania, Peru and Serbia. They were also read in Slovak national radio and published in numerous anthologies.She is one of the founding members of the Bratislava author’s club BRAK, which is an incubator for the young writers in the Slovak capital city. In 2019 worked as a secretary of the Slovak PEN Centre.She worked as a journalist in the regional newspaper and in the economic daily newspaper. Nowadays she is working as a media specialist for two big construction and industrial companies. Erik Markovič (1972) – poet, philosopher and songwriter. He has published a set of 7 collections of poetry: Ikonickosť. Prestupovanie Slnka. (LN Studňa, 2014), from philosophy Po-postmoderný princíp palintropickosti 1 (LN Well, 2017). Through his writing and work, he seeks to identify post-postmodern aesthetic principles. From 2018 to 2021, he was the president of AOSS, The Association of Authors’ Organisations in Slovakia. Erik Ondrejička was born on May 1, 1964 in the Old Town of Bratislava, where he still lives and works. He is a graduate of Bratislava’s Technical University, Department of Geodesy and Cartography. He has been writing poetry for more than three decades, however, he made his publication debut in 2004, with the collection On the Inner Side of the Eyelids. Five of his eight books have been awarded literary prizes (Eyes and Rhymes, On the Inner Side of the, Eyelids, (e)Pigrams, Say Just a Word) and Happygrams. Eyes and Rhymes, the revised version of On the Inner Side of the Eyelids, the bibliophilic collection IM PULZ – Waiting of Substance, AB80, Happygrams and Abecedári received honourable mention in the competition for the Most Beautiful Book of Slovakia in 2010-2019. Abecedári was also awarded the Bronze Medal at the Creativity International Awards (USA) and in the national competition for Best Children´s Book of Summer 2015 and Most Beautiful Children´s Book of Summer 2015. Erik Ondrejička is a member of the Slovak PEN Centre and the Club of Independent Writers. More information at https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Ondreji%C4%8Dka Martina Straková (Slovakia) studied cultural sciences and graduated from the Faculty of Arts at the Comenius University in Bratislava. She received scholarships at leading German universities and her PhD title in Philosophy. For her poetry debut Postcards from Invisible Places (Pohľadnice z neviditeľných miest, 2019) she received the Bridges of Struga Award for the best poetry debut in 2019 awarded annually under the auspices of the UNESCO by the world’s renowned poetry festival, the Struga Poetry Evenings Festival in North Macedonia. Since 2013, she has been co-organizing the International Poetry Festival Ars Poetica, where she holds a free creative writing workshop Bring Your Poem offered to the wide public as a regular part of the festival program. She is dedicated to writing poetry, fairy tales for children, painting and artistic translation from/to German and English language. She lives and works in Bratislava. www.martistrak.sk Video-poem “I’m Sheltering from a Storm”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmVM8f4DKCE The poem sulphur comes from the poetry collection Martina Straková: Postcards from Invisible Places, Ars Poetica Publishing House, Bratislava, 2019, translated into English by John Minahane. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
Slovakian Spring – Part 3 For our last instalment, we introduce five lyrical poets who responded to our call. We hope that their poetic outlook speaks across borders, and shows different dimensions of being. ‘near the blue woods’ by Marta Franeková between the water and waterplant mejust beyond the meadow for which bees have always meant everything I’ll breathe in greedily as if I’d never existed for real and in reality until now In a forest full of consciousnessI wake up my own hands and they in the same instant fly awaythe trees dress themselves in the festive costumes we’ll be together and invoke heaven with our eyes for to use my voice would not be appropriate the day I begin to ignore the light I shall count the growth rings I’ve lived and when it’s decided when the time comes to cut me downI’ll fall in your directiontherewhere we felt the bare moss under our feet ‘Rebirth’ by Judita Ďurčová Kneeling on the seashore I pick up the fragments of the autumn goblins made of glass, who sleep by the door of the soul of fire. At the midnight innThe White Death awaits me His serpent-like eyes are full of sadness, while silken trees are caressing my cheeks… On the stairs of the blue rainbowHe leads me by the hand to the sacred ruins where angels dance in the golden grass. ‘Pinning’ by Vlasta Mesárošová You give me crooked drawing pins.At least I can hold my breath.They say:“Don’t whine, keep walking, kneepads enjoy the whole experience!” I’ve got used to the magicianpulling out bad luck from the hat for me.Wrapped in shrapnel, just in case,to –to hold together better,so it won’t vanish with the next day,to scrape the gilding off the bone,…the slashes on my knees don’t hurt ‘The Sun Is Love’ by Anton Andrej Pižurný Like the metastasis of evil todayenvy pervades everywhere, changing subtly into hatred.The god Ares rubsHis hands with glee.He doesn’t have to think of any schemes, we’ll kill each other without him.Yet again, the sun rises.It’s still up there, mighty and unrivaled.Yet, Hope like pollen still paints our mornings.The Sun is Love.Where does a good man live?In each one of us.In everyone.Really? ‘City’ by Dušan Láznička Fire!fearthe city of screams Deathwill perfectthe pulse of the present ruins corpsesTime – absolutely certain absurdity x x x the city of sleepnot worth pantingI seethe pleasure of the ruinsthe whiteness of the glowthe fire of the dead chillnothingnessmalignant silencespacewithout emptiness I feelThe coldness of the fearlast in the eyes – my sorrowsmognear the temple a REVOLVER Meet the Poets! Judita Ďurčová (1983), a poet and prose writer, read history at the University in Bratislava, Slovakia. She lives in Nové Město nad Váhom. Her poems appear regularly in literary magazines. Marta Franeková was born in 1961, in Námestov. She lives and works as a kindergarten teacher in Oravské Veselý. Her work has been published in the following periodicals: Dotyki, Literary Weekly, in the magazine Vertigo, in the collections of the literary portal Litweb; the latter one also published her collection Oh Willow, Willow in the anthologies Pars Artem and Svetlom modrý. She made her book debut in 2012 with the collection Mute Herons (DALi Košice); in 2015 she published the collection Odklonené svety (DALi Košice) with the support of the State Literary Fund, and in 2019 her poetry book Rozprávanky (Perfekt Bratislava) was again financially supported by the Literary Fund. Dušan Láznička (b. 1975) started his literary work when styding a in high school. His science fiction triptych was awarded third place in the National Literary Competition for Secondary School students. Later, he worked as an editor (Christian magazine Plátok), essayist and poet. In the second half of the 1990s he joined the Omega Literary Club in Trenčín, where he published poetry and prose in their collections and anthologies. He was the editor-in-chief of the club’s magazine Ars – Verbum. In 2012, he won second place in the prose category of the Jozef Branecký Literary Competition. In 2019, Pars Artem published his collection Journeys, which is his tribute to surrealism. In it, he experiments with automatic text and surreal images. Vlasta Mesárošová was born in 1969 to a family of mixed nationalities. Part Hungarian, Slovak, German and Roma Gypsy, her literary poeticism is influenced by this rich heritage. Vlasta studied social work and has devoted her whole life to helping others. She is also involved in humanitarian aid. She is a family person, very proud of her husband and two sons. Anton Andrej Pižurný, born in 1961 near Zilina, is a writer, copywriter, publisher, editor, and radio presenter. He has authored 11 prose and poetry books. Moreover, he has written 5 books of reportages and 7 books for children. His other activities involve script writing and an ongoing collaboration with the Ministry for Education in Slovakia. He lives in Bratislava with his wife and three children. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
Mum (A Phenomenal Woman) by Nikola Veselá I want to thank you for your brightest smile that showed mehow you sacrificed your dreamsso that I can pursue mine.I want to apologize for calling you prettybefore calling you brave or smartbecause your mindis the most beautiful piece of art. A Note from the Editor I often use creative writing in my English Language classes to improve my students’ understanding and feel for the language. Needless to say, they always rise to the challenge, but every now and again, you encounter a rare talent that leaves you speechless. Nikola Veselá is such a talent. She wrote this poem last year when she was only 14. We had planned to share this piece to wish women around the world Happy International Women’s Day and Happy Mother’s Day. Now, just a country away, Ukraine is being torn apart by war. Women and girls are being impacted. Teenagers the same age as Nikola. Women the same age as you, as your sister, mother, niece, daughter… If you can, it would be wonderful if you could donate to the United Nations Population Fund, which is particularly focused on helping endangered women and girls in Ukraine. You can find out more (and donate!) here. Meet the Poet Nikola Veselá is a student at Pražské humanitní gymnázium in Prague. She is an avid reader, and her specialist subject is Jane Austen. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
Slovakian Spring with Raspberries on Her Fingers by Miroslav Dávid i think everybody would want herand preferably if she were only theirsnailed upside downbleeding raspberries on the Marian cross from steel reinforcement with raspberries on her fingers she won’t hurt anybody they’re from her garden that is like a poem and from all the healing herbs of true love and shots of rum so don’t you interfere, devil even if she’s bare to her soulshe’s going to be mine. Miroslav Dávid writing as Moddivari and River Salome: “with Raspberries on Fingers” (Elist Publishing, 2018) Ripe by Danica Hrnčiarová Šišláková burlesque tones of silly wishesreverberated in the trumpets of Jerichoforgiven is the one who woundedthe beast inside me that doesn’t grow the battle is overonly silence now I peer into the poetry windowI’ve (hopefully) won the duel with pridethe other results – one all The Ballad of the Pearl (to All Petrarcas) by Vladimír Skalský Like a scalpel stuck in the chesta grain of sand hurts so muchit penetrated the oyster’s armouronly because In the moment of weakness It was let close to the heart There is nothing leftbut to wrap the pain in beautyto dull the pain with wordsand, with the cut-up heart,toll furiouslyall the bellsof the lonely bedroom I Stopped You by Vladimír Skalský I stopped you in the streetMaybe you would have been run over by a carMaybe you would have met a great loveAnd your son might have destroyed the worldOr solved the nuclear waste problemI held you up for three minutesSurely another sperm would make itMarilyn Monroe would have crooked legsKennedy’s assassin wouldn’t be born at allTen years from now, we’d land on Mars I stopped you in the streetAnd that is how I changed the world Meet the Poets Miroslav Dávid is a Slovak poet, an award-winning lyricist who celebrated massive success with hits for Slovak rock and pop acts in the 80s. He is also a music manager and producer. So far, he has four poetry collections published: Rogalo, veľryba a Kristus Pán (2017: Trio Publishing, Bratislava), Detox (2017: Silvia Hodálová – VIUSS, Bratislava), s Malinami nastoknutými na Prstoch (2018: Vydavateľstvo Elist), Domino (2019: Vydavateľstvo Elist). He has also been awarded prestigious literary prices such Mobel Prize 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively or Pars Poetry 2018. He has three children and two grandchildren. He is divorced. Danica Hrnčiarová Šišláková, an award-winning poet and a software analyst, comes from Banská Bystrica (Slovakia) but is currently living in the Czech Republic. She started writing first poems when she was about 8 years old. At the age of 13, she became a published poet: she published in the literary supplement of the magazine Nové slovo, with then the editor-in-chief Vojtech Mihálik and in the anthology Právo na píseň. After starting a family, she took a long hiatus from writing. After 2015, she returned to poetry again and ventured to read it publicly. Her poems appeared in many anthologies in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, as well as publication in the online magazine of the Association of World Writers (AWW). Vladimír Skalský was born on April 26, 1972 in Prešov, Slovakia, where he graduated from grammar school. Later, he earned a master’s degree in theoretical physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague. As well as running his own business, since 1992 he has held a number of public office positions and management positions in various media corporations. Since 1996, he has been the vice-chairman of the Slovak-Czech Club and deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Slovenské dotyky (Slovak Touches), and from 2004 to 2013 he was the editor of the literary quarterly, the Czech-Slovak journal Zrkadlenie/Zrcadlení (Mirror/Zrcadlení). Since 2006 he has been the President of the World Association of Slovaks Abroad, and since 2009 he has been the Vice President of the Europeans in the World, based in Brussels. Since 2014 he has been the director of the Slovak House in Prague. He is a member (2004 – 2010 and from 2019 until now) and Vice-Chairman (2005 – 2008) of the Government Council for National Minorities of the Czech Republic. He has authored many books: the collections of poems To Silence (2000) and From Two Shores (2017) and the collection of essays Keywords: Prague, Slovakia, literature (2004). All in all, he appears as either an author, co-author or editor of about thirty books. He was co-editor of the three-volume anthology of Slovak literature abroad Between Two Houses (2008-2010) and co-editor of Čítanka moderní slov. literature for secondary schools (2003). His poems and essays have been translated into English, French, Czech, Chinese, Hungarian, Russian and Serbian. All translations by Natalie Nera. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
A Peruvian Autumn – Part 3 Broken by Filonilo Catalina We who are brokenare always trying to fix ourselveseither with a glass of wine in our handor with a syringe in our arms.Alwayswe always try to mend ourselvesin church with our hair neatly combedor with a partner by the hand.Wewho are brokenwalk until our shoes are worn outwe stand in long lines in the pewsand with sad smiles we wait well seated.We who are brokensay good morning without thinkingand without remedy we leave this world with our suits on and our hair in a ponytail. Until the last song by Lourdes Aparicion In memory of Evelyn Rondinelli, my Blue Orbital I have searched for you under the rockswho have been sleeping since you resigned from Ayacuchoyour shadow was a blue birdI was walking the gloryshaggy headsand the adobe houseswhere we lived when you were meatyou used to hideunder that river that led usand dance to the last songin dis-crazy parties,You expected that every nighttear themselves apart before your eyeswith your smilea blue rainbowa serene and blue skya calm blue rivera blue rainand this heart thatI knowgathershrinkrips apartbluntsfromthatyourvoiceflew Hymn to Seeing by Valeria Chauvel I’ve seen nature, infinite, boundlessThe life I see around is countlessThere is hope with us, I may proveI’ve seen them breathe and move. I’ve seen the night white coloursIn between its dark huesI’ve seen the light undercoverBehind the clouds, it diffuse. I’ve stopped to walk and talkTo learn, to see and hearIn the space, timeless clockThe beauty and sounds in here. The New Life by Willy Gómez We were leaving in your car and we had an open moon chasing us. On your body grew other shores of high meadows, and in my hands your photos, my glasses, your citrus cologne and my cigarettes. We were driving at 120 km/h listening to the radio Tragedies of Priam, astonished because of the alum stains on the track that darkened the road towards a horizon of frightened lights. A protagonist of the escape was going with us to the Lima carnival. I was saving for the arrival of its bridges and its gardens, the waltzes of the old neighborhood, the adobo recipe and the modern dance. Until the narcissus came to us wanting to fight, after the desire to go further while the cars slowed down one after the otherand slid over the real landscape of wires and poles of the Costa Verde. That starless night we were caught in a double collision between machines. But we could still hear the sea breaking the waves. About the Authors Lourdes Aparicion (Apurímac, 1993). Lourdes Apari Moscoso, also Lourdes Aparicion. Migrant, activist, psychologist and community cultural manager. She lives in Paracas (Pisco, Ica), where she is the co-founder of the Emergentes del Mar Cultural Group. She is the author of the “Warmi” plaquette. Likewise, she has been invited to participate in different literary events, national and international, and some of her texts make up various literary exhibitions in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico. In 2020, she obtained the first honorable mention in the XI El Poeta Joven del Perú Contest with a first version of her book entitled Apacheta. Filonilo Catalina: He is a cultural manager. He won the COPÉ prize for poetry in 2005 with his book El Monstruo de los Cerros and, in 2015, he obtained the first place for poetry in the “El País de Ofelia” award in Spain with the book Arquitectura de Pájaros. He has published seven books of poetry. In his youth he was a member of the Box team from Arequipa. Nowadays he is currently dedicated to make musical compositions. He directs the label “Rupestre” with which he disseminates the poetry of his country. Valeria Chauvel Moscoso (1998, Lima, Perú). Studies philosophy at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and is as passionate about poetry and visual arts as she is about her career. She has participated in a collective publication with the FCE in the poetry book “Versos desde el encierro” and in the recital of La Huaca es Poesía, “De las voces del Perú y Latinoamérica para el mundo” (From the voices of Peru and Latin America to the world). She is currently part of the organization La Huaca es Poesía. Also, she is about to finish her first collection of poems, where the search for meaning, existential emptiness and the absurd are the themes that prompted the creation of this first book of verses. Willy Gómez Migliaro was born in Lima-Peru on August 13, 1968. Winner of the Latin American poetry prize Festival de la Lira 2015. He has directed the poetry magazines Polvo enamorado (1990-1992) and Tokapus (1993-1996). He has also published the books of poetry Etérea (2002), Nada como los campos (2003) and La breve eternidad de Raymundo Nóvak (2005), all under the Hipocampo Editores label; Moridor (Pakarina Ediciones, 2010), Construcción Civil (Paracaídas Editores, 2013), Nuevas Batallas (Arteidea Editores, 2013), Pintura roja (Paracaidas Editores, 2016) Lírico puro (Hipocampo Editores, 2017), Among the research books it has been compiler of the book OPEMPE, relatos orales asháninka y nomatsiguenga (Editorial AndesBook, 2009) y Cholos, 13 poetas peruanos nacidos entre el 70 y el 90 (Catafixia, 2014). His poems have appeared in major Spanish-American and European magazines. He has been published in different national and international poetry anthologies. He is currently a professor of literature, creative writing, and literary consultant. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
A Peruvian Autumn – Part 2 Borderline poem 10 by Jorge Ccoyllurpuma I’m tied to the ground like a sad child’s balloon or the smile of a drunk.I’m made out of cardboard and milk, of darts; I’m made up of feathers you don’t have but that I invented for you.I’m a stone at the window of God; I’m also the stone in your dirty window.I am a plastic kite and a boat in the bathtub.I’m a bathtub of hot water, with Pisco and eggs for your stomachache.I am, I’ll say it now, your dirty laundry.I’m tied to the sky by every fiber of December’s rain, I’m blue incense.I’m the unmovable afternoon right where you are. * From Para detener el tiempo (2013)* Translated by Jesús de la Garza, Martina Hoines and Pieter Odendaal a violet dawn before the great wilderness by Victoria Mallorga burning tireslavender grows down highways as we learn how to kiss in the backseatforget our hands, ignore the smog behind us thecity’s many eyes workforcelong men and batons readyfor the unapologetic labor of correcting wildlifebut us, we grow like foxtailsbullets rain dry over a bodyunable to hold blood,over bodies that meet againin the backseat whisperinglittle lovegrass, chantinguntil light collapses into our hands, until wildliferaises from my fingertipsand we know this isthe end of our running days as the melody of a floral lullaby bursts from the radio, overpowering the motor, the burning oil sirens howling kilometers close, hiding the smell of gunpowder that claws its way towards our little car.so you drive us cityboundyour nightshade smile, your kisses down the back of my handyour solar-powered heart, your warm cruelty turned againstthe burning asphaltthat trembles in waitforesees the blood,the final stand, the glistening warmth of our getaway car under vinesas you pour yourself into me kiss my hands until my fingertips overwhelmthe city bury usunderneath an impossible new wilderness. Ritual by Karina Medina At the height of my foreheadI picked up a coca leafi closed my eyesI looked at mandalas leaves.In the riteI took the painin my handsI left itat the root.A tear in the soul.I opened my eyeslike trailsI saw the river running away from mewith a dread of ancestorsthose that forced me to speakin another poem.I am left alonewithout leaveswithout mandalaswithout roads. Be Quiet by Emilio Paz Silence is a face.Has a cold lookThat penetrates the bones.Bones that are made of paper:WeakBrittleEasy to burnSilence is a face of sand.It melts in the hands of memory.But it always leaves a mark.Floral scent trailThat is confused with the stench of cemeteries:Decomposition accompanied by classical music.Virgilio watches over Dante’s silence.Dante consumes Beatriz’s silence.Beatriz is content with God’s silence.And God?Silently on the altarWhile the priest preaches.He preaches that is confusedWith what he wanted to sayBut that he never tried to say.Silence that is a dropThat starts a river.Rio who commits suicide in the sea.Everything returns to oneEven the wordsAnd silence is an eternal return. About the Authors Jorge Alejandro Ccoyllurpuma (b. Cusco, 1987): Poet and literary translator also known as Jorge Alejandro Vargas Prado. He has published poetry, short stories, and a novel. As a Quechua descendant, his creative work explores this ancestral Andean culture and language. Photo: Julio del Carpio Victoria Mallorga Hernandez is a queer Peruvian taurus, poet, and editor. Currently, she is an associate editor at Palette Poetry and an MA candidate in Publishing and Writing at Emerson College. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Revista Lucerna, Plastico, perhappened, Anti-Heroin Chic, Kissing Dynamite, and Thin Air, among others. Across the hemisphere, she moonlights as the chief coordinator of Literature in the Alternative Art Fair (ANTIFIL) and reviews books for La Libretilla, a Hispano-American project. Victoria has published two collections in Spanish, albión (alastor editores, 2019) and absolución (2020). Find her on Instagram or Twitter as @cielosraros. Emilio Paz (b. Lima, 1990) is a teacher of philosophy and religion, and a graduate of the Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae. He is the author of Septiembre en el silencio (Club de lectura poética, 2016), La balada de los desterrados ( Ángeles del Papel Editores, 2019) and Laberinto en versos (La tortuga ecuestre, n°394, 2018). He is the winner of the Marco Antonio Corcuera Foundation competition and the ninth international competition “El Parnaso del Nuevo Mundo” in the short story category. He has been published in various media in Peru, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Venezuela, USA, Argentina, India, Ecuador, Romania, Costa Rica, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria and France. His work has been translated into Romanian, French, Italian, Bulgarian, Uzbek, English and Tamil. He has participated in many international as well as national speaking engagements. He teaches philosophy and conducts poetry workshops. He has also published works on the relationship between poetry, aesthetics and education. He has participated in many international philosophical conferences.Photo: Mike Paredes Karina Joelly Medina Paico (Lima PERÚ – 1986) : Teacher, writer and editor. She studied at the Higher University of Applied Sciences (Advertising) and is currently studying Art Education at the National School of Dramatic Art. She has participated in certified dramaturgy, poetry and theater workshops dictated by the Cultural Center Spain. She has been published in the anthologies Dew of Poems (2017), Spring Verses (2017), Crystal Verses (2018) and Poetic Love (2019) of the Peruvian Society of Poets; as well as in the poetry collections The Danger of Being Alive (2018), Beside the Road (2019) and The sea doesn’t stop (2019). Her own published collections of poems are Pavo real (Ediciones Marginales – 2019) and Eterna estación (Pléyades Ediciones – 2021. She has worked as a copyreader and editor from a very young age. She is the editorial director at Pléyades Ediciones, her own company. Nowadays Karina Medina works as a researcher and compiler of Peruvian poetry. In 2021 she presented her Coral Collection project, which consists of four books of poems written by young and consecrated poets, Peruvian and Latin American. The first published Volume 1 is Ultimísima Young Poetry – 21 Peruvian female poets. Volume 2, Ultimísima Young Poetry – 21 Peruvian male poets, will be published this coming September. The other two volumes will be published in 2022.Photo: Biblioteca Abraham Valdelomar Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
A Peruvian Autumn I Keep Hosted in my Memory Elí Urbina I keep hosted in my memorythe placid image of the body of love.Light must come again,but now, in reality, only the raindrapes the avenue as black birdseed. Look at the slow descent ofmeat’s thorn into the secret wound.The brothel, its greed, absorbs my burnt-out soul,my hope, thirsting of feeling,for an instant, the deaf crackle. In the gloom the prostitute dances with the sinuosity of a broad flare.Already the longing gathers around in the mirror,the shadow of my hand lengthens. As strong as the pleasure burnsalways her face inside me ignites. From The Abyss of Men (2020)Transl. into English: Sofía Leibovich Photo by Leo Arslan Opening an Old Fayad Jamís Notebook on Friday Afternoon Julio Barco In the winter of the summer I describe my eyes, Ithe labyrinthine animal that still dreams opening the notebooksbetween the divided rooms the score of life. Old lovers buy dry bread in the cellars. This poem starts here.Foolish way of repeating the body; This is the poemNothing but a shaky line that isdream verse. As the city sinks into depressionI separate signs and petals. I am the one who watches over your name.I am the one who observes from your window the neighborhoodbarely illuminated by the sunset poles.The most beautiful youngsters are thrown of the Electric Towers.The most beautiful young are launched from the Electric Towers? My long hair is now a fucking form of walk against the wind. Sailor of pampas, land, asphalt, poultry.Girls commit suicide in their roomsYesterday everything was excessively sadEverything will repeat itself or bifurcate the sameIt doesn’t matter: I started another poem and came backthe same: 1. Inert object shakily disposed on the table.2. Street closed as destruction and desire.3. Movement of machines & bodies.4. This poem will begin when everything explodes.5.Our bodies collapse.6. We organize a concert in a body predisposed to joyto correct this. Good. We will walk again.I am the same one who drew centuries ago in your womb A brilliant labyrinth of a thousand Sunflowers.We repeat ourselves in the constellations. My fruit flavor intoxicated your hair. *** A piece of jazz hissing through your body.Everything changes and sprouts and multiplies. The poems we repeat now are emptinessNothingness – a lilac flower.Something mystically recognisablewhen we are absencelooking behind the windows?The beatniks have diedAnd Gary Snyder walksThe lonely mountains.I walk the night.You send your poems to other countries.Reading the poemleads to an understanding of its nature.Nothing personal.My poetic voice mutated in the neighborhoodswhere we prepare lentilsAnd we boiled our sorrowsMy poetic self is bornSad blue lilac full of cloudsThat the celery did not diminishAnd so we love each otherAmbulances roam the cityBetween Oscillations and Digital SemblanceIn forniceOf the silenced bodiesin the only concert that we giveAt the timein the only possible movement.The Concert of our open green clear eyesTo the absolute mysteryTo the burned factories and to the landDid the young people jump from the Electric Tower today?And we are And we runAnd it’s cold in this damn cityThat is my poetic art: our savageHungry,the wind shaking your face.Vague. Way.I’m listening. I observe.I am all this crazy movie whereVerb is beauty and lucidity a bodyLooking for another.I look for you.This way of mine to flee is to pronounce yourName.The clarity of a dinnerwell prepared.Sometimes rooms or versesSometimes Stefan Joyce or Li PoWhile we were cutting a tomatoCool as the diagonal thatruns through my body when I touch yours.When in yours I go back to mineI recognize myself as a void between multiplication and clay.When I hiss your nameIn the mist of hearts.This is my time.Oh streets, I’m so sorry to come backTo live everything againThe poem will be a frozen roomThe poem will be two bodiesThe poem will be some dark images that II gently release betweenThe Axials of Terror and Glory.The poem will be a path through the fire.The poem will be a star.The poem will be a way of feeling abstracted: a state in the crowd.The poem will be the image of a man looking at the glass from a window.The poem will be my hand looking for yours.The poem is an angel about my loneliness.The poem is a lost shoe.The poem is your bodyThe poem is your mouth.The poem is my destinyParty in unrest.Saturday without you.We disappeared in the restless dawnThat you smashed in a canof beer.The body of the poem silently longed forwhen we were two crazy teenagersSeeking to satisfy our abyssesOh Lima take me away from Minor SiltOf the stars multiplied in my PhallusRelatively common sentimental conversationFacing the CenturiesRepeating the maze of the bodyLabyrinth that I silently observed inside myselfWithin others,Within the total Other that is the OrbAnd my mind opening between the cracksOf the days / Smoke from the streets black prayer of the tunaWe will always long for the same poemThat perfectly leads us to ourselvesLabyrinth within Our MusicMusic that croaked within our circumferenceAnd I have rewritten our life:Saturday or Friday night landscapeLooking for love on the long hard streets andAll the asphalt was the lost crevice of your faceWe woke up looking for a ceviche in Puente PiedraI still make love to you as the year closes withSome rum in the room10 lucas is all I have in my bank accountAnd I walk alone &The poem it’s a mind game within our intensityThe poem It is the safe conduct to our temporalityThe poem is the concert of our honestyThe poem it’s the concert of our decadeThe poem it’s your body, Antonio, Mara, streets, Miguel,Ovid, Malaga, Omar, AgamemnonThe poem between roses and glasses clothes and perspirationFrom the fire of colours falling onYour belly: wildfire, beauty, landscape, poem, theoremOf chaos, fire, bodies that I deliciouslyI became my alchemy. EyelidsFrom the crazy city where I dance or play dreamingThis bouquet of wet roses that endedBeing my voice and my body, passion that is chaosIn mind awake where I slideTo know your eyes: what isThe Literary Work? What are your methodsIn the garúa of faces and symbolsIn the semen of infinities, what is reality? Ah, damn summer, you bastardIn the boredom of bitter girlsAnd I decided it embroidered on my hair a longGrimace, a long beat of bitter flowers.The speed of my rhythm. And here we startThis new notebook to protect my eyesOf the folly of a world that is more deplorable every day.And behind were the bodies that I silently lovedAnd behind, my house and the light from the windows, and theTerrible affection that nobody knew how to give. And here,In the showcase of loneliness, among the gardens of boredom,I repeat your body virulently, I longI rise, kiss, lunge, dream, I light up your voiceIntensely the voracity of our bodies.And despair gave me this world that II turned on with the clarity of my mind. And now I do not bathe and I walk alone,Disturbed between streets and hermit smiles.And poetry was something that we tirelessly repeated:Streets, bodies, pieces of a ballad that I placed in your eyes,Insomnia, verses by Borges or Gelman, a balladDe Manzanero while he was looking for the ideal epigraphTo simply show my intensity.Chasing the writing was the verse itself.The verse itself mutates into the plurality of I’s.Perfection is not enough for me, I do not want the absolute.Abstract thinking as an aphorism translated from EnglishTo French, To SpanishThat simply reveals the chaos of a polished mindAs Kavafis thoughtAs I knocked on your door and you opened a quiet pageBy M. Proust. I think we have nothing else left.Except buying old editions of VerásteguiFind a volume of Eminescu to use his versesAs an epigraphWalk, Walk, Breathe, BurnLive it, inhabit it like a strange fire that haunts it.Sing it, cry it, we inhabited the verse like a summerOpen with shorts and fear of going out on the streetsThat was the saddest month.I only want my little room where I dream versesOr streets or landscapes that are necessarily another matter.Another matter to describe the course of your mindInside silently sad computers.And my sadness is miles of versesThat one day I will dream for you whileI miss you between the rooftops and loneliness, lonelinessAnd cats opening black garbage bagsBlack tears of my still raging lonelinessTurned into a little hymn landing on the wingsOf the Lepidoptera. And it’s true, I’m depressedOr sad or with a thousand rebellious sunflowers inside my eyelidsAnd my eyelids are all my crazy mind full of I’sThat, as Julio Herrera points out in metric verse,It is the shuddering Me before the mud of the dough.The Shocked Epoch tenderly overwhelming your sex.And you shine so brilliantly.Oh party, Lima is my crude city and my countryLima is a luminous melody growing happilyand my crude way of walking and watching and scratching my musicTwo young men haunted by hatred searchingA small room to love each other.And yes, I am a boy and I love you, and I will shut up when youNaked and I undress and we are this countryOpen, shattered, cracked like your lips.And that’s why I wrote this poem and started anotherWithin the same axial axis of your mouth.Not this one, pick and choose in thicknessOf meaning the most. And what difference does it make to haveBeen the fire if today we are but twoSilent truths. So far from love I speakSo far from faded feelingsThat I reject my voice from another year, my lonelinessNow written between papers and cutleryAnd this need to walk or stroll quietlyBy rooms. I stared at a flyThat flew above volume two of the WorkComplete by Neruda. And I opened that little book of Fayad, the Cuban, Jamís. Days of getting bored and immediately writing the seizureAnd convulsion is thousands of streets or pains. And all my powerIt is to fix my eyes on you now that you are sobbing betweenYour memories: streets, houses, shattered country, AprilIt’s the most stupid month, you know, you have to workTo pay for the receipts, electricity, streets, songsAnd I also remember that we slept in the eyeOf a newly pregnant mother. Photo by 3Motional Studio Face Walter Velasquez Seeing the glow of your beautyWhat does your beauty contemplateAccompanied by your natureAnd freshness It is your face that amazes meQuiet and distractedLeaving my eyes blindAnd my body turned off Frankly I don’t know if this will be artOh no if it’s art, oh I don’t know if it’s artBut I can’t deny what it isBrighter than everHave been seenOh blazing, oh blazing About the Authors Elí Urbina (b. Chimbote, Perú, 1989) is licensed in Letters and has a Master’s degree in University Teaching and Pedagogic Research. He has published the poetry collections: “La sal de las hienas” – The salt of the hyenas (Plectro Editores, 2017) and “El abismo del hombre”- The abyss of men (Buenos Aires Poetry, 2020). His poetry has been translated into Greek, Serbian, Macedonian, French, Italian and English. He is the founder and director of the poetry magazine Santa Rabia. Julio César Barco Avalos (b. Lima, 1991) is the author of the books Me da pena que la gente grow (Arteidea Editores, 2012), Breathe (La Chimba Editores-2018-Writers Guild Award), Vastísima Architecture (Editora Huachumera-2019-Huauco de Oro Award), Arder (grammar of the dandelions) (Editorial Higuerilla-2019), The music of my head Vol. 7 (Language Peru -Editors) In 2019, he presented Semen (music for young lovers) (Language Peru – Editors). He is the founder and director of the TAJO group. In 2020 he published four books during lockdown: Des(c)ierto (Metaliteratura, Argentina 2020), the re-edition of Semen (Metaliteratura, 2020) and two volumes in Colombia: Operating System (SO, 2020) and Copy, cut, paste, load (Obra Abierta, Colombia, 2020). He is currently Editor of Literalgia and Lima Gris and Manager of the Poético Río Hablador Cultural Project (which develops poetry projects in El Agustino) and directs the website Lenguajeperu.pe, which is a new national blog of Peruvian and Latin American poetry and art. He obtained an honorable mention in the XI Young Poet of Peru contest (2020) with the poetry book Semilla Cósmica. Walter Alexis Velasquez Mendoza is 24 years old. He is a journalism student at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University. He has been involved in literary activity since he was twenty years old, where he made his first poetic presentation at the Oral Poetry Slam, at the Reporteros Infiltra2 collective. He has participated in national anthologies such as “El Dolor de la Tinta” (Editorial El Verso Azul); “El Mar No Cesa” (Editorial Ángeles del Papel); “Al Lado del Camino” (Marginal Editions), among others. His writing has appeared in both national and international magazines. Previously, he worked in the Federation of Journalists of Peru, in the Diario La Verdad Municipal and the literary magazine Buensalvaje. He is currently an editor and reporter for the digital portal La Cuarta Noticias. 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Like an Old Movie by Mircea Dan Duta Translated by Natalie Nera I’m sitting at Ginger Mary’s, a railway station pub in Ostrava. The place feels as industrial as the rest of this North Moravian city. A beer to say goodbye. An empty pint on my table. A pretty young blonde is sitting at the table in front of me. The femininity of her existence – her unreal blue eyes, her angelic face, her firm round breasts, her beautiful sexy legs, her narrow waist, her delicate knees, her thin ankles and elegant pumps, paired with the incomprehensible city of Ostrava… I am staring knowingly, urgently, and in vain. She doesn’t notice me at all. In fact, she doesn’t move at all, as if she were dead. Yes, I know she’s not dead, because that’s what I understand about Ostrava, that there are no dead blondes sitting around with a beer at Ginger Mary’s. But that doesn’t matter anymore, does it? But what did I get from Ostrava this year? A month (just a crescent) of authors’ readings, in which I was originally supposed to moderate thirty events, but in the end there were only fourteen of them. A well-known poet promised to attend all of them, though he ended up attending only four. I was invited to another illustrious reading, where, as the – would-be – main guest, I was supposed to read five poems, and in the end I barely read one. A beautiful Slovak photography student, with whom I fell incurably in love, and vanished from the Ginger Mary’s together with two bright young classmates, without paying their bill. The pissed-off publican who didn’t want to understand that I wasn’t really the father of those students, so I didn’t have to cover their bill. The police officer finally solved everything by making me pay for his dinner in addition to their beers, liquor shots and plates of stew. Futile dreams of promoting my poetry, if not in the Czech Republic, Moravia, Silesia or Ostrava, then at least at the Ginger Mary’s and at the Absinthe Club, and if not at the club, then at least at Les. No beer at Dvanáctka, which is a theatre space. A bottle of local liquor – Becherovka – gifted by the festival director, which doesn’t fit in my luggage, so I have to sip it in secret here at the Ginger Mary’s, or on the fourth platform at the Ostrava’s Central Station before my train leaves. Two bus rides in full sobriety, to Brno to attend some conferences, followed by three drunken train rides back to Ostrava. (I have never found the unshaven conductors on Czech Railways prettier and more seductive). Seventy-two draught Ostravar beers, which I paid for out of my own pocket, and another thirty-six, which I would have been entitled to for free had I learned in time that as a festival participant I also enjoyed certain benefits, not just obligations. The hands of the long-broken wall clock in my room, still showing three hours and twenty minutes of in all likelihood our era, as still as my empty pint here at the Ginger Mary’s and as still as the pretty young blonde at the table in front of me. I down the Director’s bottle of Becherovka. This year, like the years before, Ostrava didn’t show me any panties. My train’s on time. I won’t make it anyway. I don’t give a damn about them. Or him. And everything. I’m slowly falling asleep. Here in Ostrava at the Ginger Mary’s. … to magically wake up at the Dragon bar in Brno. A pretty, unapproachable blonde is at the table in front of me. She’s typing on her phone and smiling stupidly at the screen. Next to me, a fat guy in a business suit. His cell phone keeps ringing, but he doesn’t answer. The waitress is chatting with the bartender, they haven’t taken an order in half an hour. There’s an empty pint glass on my table. Loneliness in Brno. In the old movie with the same title, they were just dealing with boredom. I don’t know how they managed to bring me the first beer and cutlery. I’d like to cut my veins with the knife, which would solve everything, of course, but I don’t know how the fork would fit into the equation, let alone a spoon and tea spoon. And so, I hesitate over whether to stab myself in the wrist, throat or liver with the knife, and whether this would be better achieved with the fork, spoon or tea spoon, or just feebly with my own bare hands. I look around once more. Certainly no one will teach me. The blonde is typing on her cell phone, the fat guy’s cell phone is ringing constantly and unnecessarily, the glass in front of me is still empty, the waitress is still chatting with the bartender – it’s getting unbearable. Just take the knife in your hand and then there will be a solution. All of a sudden, the blonde giggles charmingly – you know, I’ve never heard such a charming and seductive laugh before; she spreads her beautiful legs like wings – spontaneously, unexpectedly, abundantly and willingly, oh man, as I enjoy the sight of her modern, transparent and immaculate white miniature panties, the fat man at the next table finally takes the last of these urgent calls, oh man, what a pleasant and willing corporatist voice, the waitress and bartender appear at my table, what would you like, sir, oh, man, how nice and helpful they are, oh well, I know what to do, life is worth living, the void around me can be filled after all, so I’m ordering another beer. About the Author Mircea Dan Duta (b. 27 May 1967, Bucharest) is a poet, a film historian, critic, researcher and academic (he holds a PhD in the subject), translator (Czech, Slovak, Polish, Romanian, French and English), and writer who has chosen to express himself in another language – Czech. He has also produced and organised many literary events in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania. As editor, he works for Levure Littéraire (France, USA, Germany), A Too Powerful World (Serbia), Alephi (India) and Quest (Montenegro). His poetry collections include: Landscapes, Flights and Dictations, Tin quotes, inferiority complexes and human rights (2014/2015, Petr Štengl Editions, Prague), Plíz sujčov jor mobajl foun senťu / Pliiz suiciof ior mobail faun senchiu (Next Page Editions, Bucharest, 2020, bilingual Czech-Romanian anthology). Examples of his academic work are: Narrator, Author & God (Charles University Press, Prague, 2009), The Holocaust in Czech, Slovak and Polish Literature & Cinema (ibid., 2007), The Czech & Slovak Film New Wave in the Social, Political and Cultural Context of the 60s of the 20th Century (Jozef Škvorecký Literary Academy Press, Prague, 2008) – last two titles are collective works. His literary works have been translated into many languages and published in many countries: Britain, France, the USA, Serbia, Poland, Spain, India, Montenegro, Albania, Egypt, Syria, Korea and Kosovo. His poems have appeared in numerous international anthologies of contemporary literature – in the USA, UK, Mongolia, Spain, Czech Republic, South-Africa, India, Indonesia, Romania, Moldova. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
Poetry of Peru: Melancholy and Power Do you know any Peruvian author? No? You may be surprised to discover that the revered world writer and Nobel Prize in Literature Winner Mario Vargos Llosa is Peruvian. It is far too easy to place all Spanish writing literati from South America in the generic brackets of Latino writers without recognizing the unique and distinctive styles, voices and points of view they represent. Yet, because of history, there are also similarities between countries of Latin America, dividing literature roughly into colonial period, modernism and contemporary literature, so typical for the region. Names of Peruvian poets such as Sebastián Bondy, José Maria Arguedas, José Santos Chocano and Martín Adán go back to the period of establishing national tradition and self-determination. Having said that, we cannot and should not overlook specific historical developments of Peru as well as significant linguistic influence of the language spoken by the original inhabitants of the country, Quechua. From that, a strong traditional lineage of oral and lyrical literature has grown, and the voice of Peruvian authors rings loudly not only through the continent but through the whole world, echoes of which one may appreciate in the latest offerings of contemporary poetry of Peru. We hope you are going to be as excited as we are when you read a small taster of its youngest poetry. The sadness, blue mood, even depression is paired with a surprising strength, daring to say the way things are, without being opaque, or nebulous. The surprising views and turns of the language are gripping and awe-inspiring. Even more baffling element of the poetry you are going to enjoy this autumn, is the ability of these poets to merge powerful narratives with lyricism. In September, we are publishing poems by three men, Eli Urbina, Walter Velazquez, Julio Barco. In October, we are offering two formidable feminine voices of Karina Medina and Victoria Mallorga, complemented by philosophical and introspective perspectives of Jorge Ccoyllurpuma and Emilio Paz who is also our guest editor for this autumn’s translation feature. And finally in November, you will be able to enjoy mesmerizing verses of Lourdes Aparicion, Valeria Chauvel, Filonilo Catalina, and Willy Gomez. We hope that this will add to the artistic flow and communication we want to encourage and facilitate as bridges, not walls spark human creativity and understanding. Natalie Nera Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...