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July 2020

"Migration" by Marianne Shaker Translated from Chinese by Jeffrey Thomas Leong Leaving behind wife and child,           I’ve experienced heavy seas. Don’t know how much wind and frost I’ve endured. Because my family was poor, I sought the precious           white jade. Separated from relatives and friends,           I drifted about, 10,000 li. It’s difficult to calculate suffering in one slice           of rain and snow, All due to a purse empty of weighty green coin.   難 萬 別      不 重 拋 計 里 親      知 洋 妻 都 捱 飄 朋 袛 受 歷 子 緣 一 流  ,為 幾 盡  , 囊 切  ,     家 多  , 澀 雨        

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"Dead Sea" by Paris Petridis Summer, and corpses covered in barnacles become buoyant, bloated bodies are hauled onto land,autopsies are performed bare on the beach. We wade and gather sea glass and bits of bone,sand-rubbed, sun-hardened, listen to the conches confess what became of them. No one swims anymore, not even in the shallows. Rods reel in life-vests and lone limbs, severed feet wash onto shore, some still sporting shoes. Comb jellies gather and glow, it stings when we wet our lips, suck at the salt beneath our fingernails. We breathe in the brine, watch the waves

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By Faig Ahmed, "Virgin" "Fuel" At its heart the pool, the blue rug of sky.In the middle of my room, the kilimwith its fish and fowl. My propensityfor arranging furniture, it would seem, in lines around the walls, leaving the flooralone as the focal point, may be duenot to some dullness in the soul but moreto workings in the bloodstream, some residue in subliminal memory of windowsthat look forever inward, galaxiesthat spin on carpets, geometric rows of turquoise tiles ablaze with symmetriesinherent in physics; eyvans((eyvan (Persian): a vaulted alcove or niche.))and porticosof gardens brought

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 A Conversation with Roy Dib on Blocking Roads, Chanting, and the Vicious Lebanese Political Cycle Roy Dib is an artist and filmmaker. But like everyone else who took to the streets on October 17, his “day job” took on a different description including specialized skills such as: blocking roads, organizing a group of activists, learning the ins and outs of pertinent revolution topics, and helping connect a network of revolutionaries in the squares. And like all things that began on October 17, ever-continuous spontaneity fed into the daily roil, including that of building the revolution-born Qantari group. Founded by Rawan Nassif,

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"Wonderland II" by Beatriz Morales by Duygu Kankaytsın, translated from Turkish by Buğra Giritlioğlu (with the help of Daniel Scher) a daisy morningas your skin swelled against mineit was the face of soilthe eventual fracture of a mountain feelings are defeated, the lancet rustyentering the river, a fugitivesharpening human scent, rinsed uterusthe pain of words in her mouth love creates but a water sacthe sound of our ever-swirling rivera woman on her own shore, aloneas you step into the sea

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A long fever, this afternoon. Sheet sun, eyelid tremor, far roofs rippled as dunes,  pools hung amid rock and its likenesses, horizons in your mind not fully closed. Hours turn you over in shallows – the glass rim between kelp scrapyards and capes, mountainous rungs down a fraying ladder – and the heat presses on, pushes time aside. You are somewhere past the awning in the sky, witnessing where everything is heading – formations slide apart into the surf, clouds roaring headway far inland – seeing memories come undone, fish veins at gutting.  

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"Tabriz Cemetery" by Sajed Haqshenas *١- شيء جنينيّ جدًّا*   وصف: راشي ٩، الطّابق الرّابع باب الزّهور تل أبيب في المرّة الأولى الّتي زرتُ فيها س.ش. في مسكنه جائتني بحّة فريد الأطرش قادمة من العتمة من إحدى الشّقق بعد خروجي من المصعد الّذي هبط للتوّ في الطّابق الرّابع. قبل الدّخول، لم أجد مرآةً لتوظيب أطراف القميص داخل جينز الماما (mommy jeans) المنتفخ عند كرشتي. وقد استغربتُ ذلك لأنّ من عادة المباني التّل أبيبيّة الكلاسيكيّة أن تستقبل زوّارها بدعوة للالتفات إلى هيئاتهم، والمرآة في المدخل كانت مستطيلة تطوّق ما أتيح من جدران، باستثناء الباب، فلم أتمكّن سوى من معاينة وجنتيّ وأطراف عيوني وسيلان الكحل. أخمّن الشّقّة ذات الباب المزيّن بالزّهور

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