What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature that explores experiences and ideas that spark the writing of new poems. In our fifth series, What Translation Sparks, a group of poet-translators share a seminal experience in translation. Each Monday's delivery brings you the poem and an excerpt from the essay.
Zewdu Milikit Translated from the Amharic by Chris Beckett
So I can feel how big he is, he starves my fingers, leans my toes and fills my chest with feathers. He even shrinks my skull into a little gourd and boasts he is by far the best of stomachs in the world, stands there pleased as punch to be a silly paunch.
"But Zewdu’s poem is all about lightness and wit: he mixes 12 syllable yewel bet lines with 6 syllable half-lines, making the poem very light and quick on its feet; he subverts the traditional aabb rhyme scheme and keeps readers a bit off-balance with a/bb/ccc/d/ee. So the task of translating this poem is to convey Zewdu’s clear message while staying true to his wit and lightness."
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"'She has always been deeply invested in the Black liberation struggle, and since the Black liberation struggle remains ongoing and necessary, she’s an elder now of that movement,' the poet Fred Moten said. 'It’s not just that she’s managed to stay relevant, it’s that the need for her is still here.'"
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