
Image: Elana Kundell, Mbira Experiment, 2009, Oil on Panel (Detail)
We’re celebrating the publication of The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris of Words without Borders, by devoting the month to poetry. Reading poetry gives one a chance to overhear similarities, or what Anna Akhmatova once called “correspondences in the air”—that is, moments where authors of different geographical and historical circumstances, languages, and traditions seem to address each other in their works. In these correspondences we see the importance of dialogue, as poets return to their poetic origins in order to create something new. Listen in on Roberto Bolaño, Sergio Chejfec, Nyk de Vries, Charles Ducal, Alta Ifland, Jazra Khaleed, Luis Garcia Montero, Yiannis Moundelas, Francesc Parcerisas, Mercedes Roffé, Tomaž Šalamun, Nikos Violaris, and Richard Wagner, and enjoy the conversations.
Correspondences in the Air: On The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry
Octavio Paz once wrote that the modern poet “extracts his visions from within himself.”
from “Tales of the Autumn in Gerona”
A woman—I should say a stranger—who caresses you, jokes with you
From the Figure 6 Into Ships
You destroyed all letters. You burned the heavenly garden.
Largo di Vitoria
Out of milk, out of strong skin jumps the big brother. When the river flows, the berth sleeps. There’s the block behind me.
Movements
You went to heaven, Sir, forgetting your legs. Should we bury them?
Roosters and Bones
If when night falls in the kitchen Someone leans over
Black Lips
Listen You who chew on my solitude
Worth It (A Thursday Telephonically)
Around ten I call you to say I have ten calls,
Then
Then with her hands she’d crown her son’s head,
Shave
Observe yourself in the mirror, unchanged yet strange,
Call Me at Home, Flambé
darling, when it comes to strawberries you’re like me
Day, A
gulls woke me and the sun
Hermes In Retrogression
With fingers—fingertips and edge of nail— he plots fires with tongues of snakes,
Let Us Talk
First, we will bury you in the sand, with your head free to speak about mutual understanding, about peace; first, we will make your field our own, station soldiers between mine
Situation: To Cast Off A Malady
invite people over. invite everyone. to a feast. a big feast. and if the sick one doesn't want to get out of bed, that’s fine, leave him there.
Night Does Not Fall
Night does not fall nor does it come
Lockjaw
I walk toward the mill To meet my quiet father
Half Sleep Half Death
Half sleep half death. My hands in springtime
Room
In that town there was a room I kept circling.
Bilingual Poem avec Clichés
Danse avec moi baby under the stormy sky
Book Reviews

Alicia Borinsky’s “Frivolous Women and Other Sinners/Frivolas y pecadoras”
Reviewed by Adam Eaglin
Alicia Borinsky’s book Frivolous Women and Other Sinners (Frivolas y Pecadoras) consistently surprises with its verve and stamina

Emmanuel Moses’s “He and I”
Reviewed by Fiona Sze-Lorrain

Ernest Farrés’s “Edward Hopper”
Reviewed by Karen Rigby

The Horse Has Six Legs: An Anthology of Serbian Poetry
Reviewed by Sibelan Forrester
Translation of poetry should always motivate two kinds of fidelity