“Soneto amargo a la taza de café” de Ricardo Castorrivas (El Salvador)
Es la musa que anima a los poetas que van al cafetín de tarde en tarde. Mientras hablan de versos y cometas, la cafeína en sus cerebros arde…
Category: World Literature
Arab Writers in Translation Reading Group for August
On Wednesday 22 August, we will discuss Iraqi novelist Mahmoud Saeed’s short 2004 work, Saddam City.* We meet on the 4th Wednesday of the even-numbered months at the Center for Survivors of Torture and War…
Introduction to Poets: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
In late August, we will resume our monthly Introduction to Poets gathering. I will be happy to share on the life and work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whom I would occasionally see on the streets of…
Oda a las gracias by Pablo Neruda
Gracias a la palabra que agradece, gracias a gracias por cuanto esta palabra derrite nieve o hierro.
Wake Up!
Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav: “The world says that stories are good to put a person to sleep, but I say that with stories you arouse people from sleep.” — Sol Lipkin, A History of Yiddish Literature
Perspective
Once an aging actress told [Abbé] Mugnier, “When I pass in front of my mirror, I cry out, ‘How beautiful I am!’ Is that a sin?” “No,” murmured the abbé, “It’s only an error.” –From…
A Request from Haiti
A friend in Haiti asked me to send her the following passage from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and now I want to reread the whole novel again! Later, after getting used to Alyosha, Pyotr Alexandrovich…
Reply to Yüan Chen
You write out my poems, filling monastery walls, and I crowd these door-screens here with yours. Old friend, we never know where it is we’ll meet– we two duckweed leaves adrift on such vast seas….
Introduction to Poets: Adrienne Rich (Wednesday 18 April)
For our fifth Introduction to Poets discussion, Becca Gorley will share with us her appreciation of Adrienne Rich. We will meet on Wednesday 18 April at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Katy Didden– 3538…
Nawal El Saadawi: Uncalled-for-boldness
This year I have invited people to participate in an Arab Writers in Translation Reading Circle. Last month, several friends and I met to discuss Egyptian writer Nawal El-Saadawi’s 1983 Memoirs from the Women’s Prison,…