New European Poets

In compiling this anthology, general editors Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer enlisted twenty-two additional regional editors to select these 290 poets, whose writing was first published after 1970. These poets are from every country in Europe, and many of them are published here for the first time in English and in the United States. Poetry translated from more than forty languages is represented, including French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and more regional languages such as Basque, Irish Gaelic, and Sami. Nearly 200 translators—among them John Ashbery, Marilyn Hacker, Michael Hamburger, Siri Hustvedt, Paul Muldoon, Charles Simic, and Derek Walcott—have contributed English versions of more than 400 poems gathered here.

 

The range of style in New European Poets is exhilarating—from the lyric intimacy of Portuguese poet Rosa Alice Branco to the profane prose poems of Romanian poet Radu Andriescu, from the surrealist bravado of Czech poet Sylvia Fischerová to the survivor's cry of Russia poet Irina Ratushinskaya. This anthology collects some of the very best work of a new generation of poets. 

Praise

"Our goal in putting this anthology was not to pretend to present a comprehensive view of European poetry today—that would be impossible . . . Nonetheless, we felt that it was important to bring this wholly imperfect endeavor to an American audience for three primary reasons: (1) the trajectory of European poetry has continued beyond the European poets known to an American audience; (2) culturally and historically Europe is radically different than it was just a few decades ago, and thus a reexamination of Europe's poetry seems due; and (3) American poetry readers and poets seem to be less engaged with European poetry than they once were, which is a shame . . . [T]he result is an anthology that is, we hope, clear in its intentions, but also kaleidoscopic and unpredictable, reflecting the deep knowledge and sensibilties of a great many committed editors, poets, translators, and nationalities."—From the introduction by Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer 

 

Table of Contents

Part 1

 

PORTUGAL

ROSA ALICE BRANCO
Mornings on the Ground
The Highest Branch
Between Yesterday and Your Mouth

 

ADÍLIA LOPES
Elisabeth Doesn't Work Here Anymore

 

JOSÉ TOLENTINO MENDONÇA
Calle Príncipe
The White Road

Stonecrop

 

RUI PIRES CABRAL
Polish Restaurant
Lost Friends
This Way Out
Our Turn
City of the Missing

 

SPAIN
BERNARDO ATXAGA
The Tale of the Hedgehog
Life

 

CHUS PATO
[you can't see the battle because it's far off in Eritrea]
[and now the panopticion is a ruin]

 

LUIS GARCÍA MONTERO
Poetry
Poetics

 

JOSÉ MANUEL DEL PINO
The Evening
The Sweet Arms of Inspiration

 

ANNA AGUILAR-AMAT
Orpheus
Relativity

 

ROGER WOLFE
Wisdom
Words
The Last Night of Earth

 

VIOLETA RANGEL
[I pray to heaven your house]
[Night, every night,]
[It's true everything you touch]
[Spidery light scratches the crystal]

 

KIRMEN URIBE
Visit
Cardiogram
Loren

 

PABLO GARCÍA CASADO
Ford
Father

FRANCE
PAUL DE ROUX
Figure in a village
Waiting (1)
Waiting (2)

 

MARIE ÉTIENNE
from The Ebony Mare

 

GABRIELLE ALTHEN
Rooms

 

EMMANUEL HOCQUARD
from The Invention of Glass

 

HÉDI KADDOUR
Spiritual Distress
Treason

 

ANDRÉ VELTER
Red or Nothing

 

ABDELWAHA MEDDEB
from The 99 Yale Stations

 

GUY GOFFETTE
So Many Things
Around the Flames
The Number

 

FRANCK ANDRÉ JAMME
from How Long?

 

HABIB TENGOUR
Conversation with Mohammed Dib

 

AMINA SAÏD
On the seventh day of my birth

 

JEAN-BAPTISTE PARA
Svetla
Tomorrow

 

ARIANE DREYFUS
Rosas 1998

 

EMMANUEL MOSES
Souvenir of Liège

 

BRUNO GREGOIRE
White Siestas
Sanctuary

 

CHRISTOPHE LAMIOT ENOS
Night II
Night III

 

VALÉRIE ROUZEAU
Won't see you soon:
Takeaway
Gather me some
Fido

 

LUXEMBOURG
ANISE KOLTZ
From The Fire Eater

 

JEAN PORTANTE
from The Desert

 

SWITZERLAND
ELISABETH WANDELER-DECK
from controcantos

 

URS ALLEMANN
For the Lyre

 

PIERRE VOÉLIN
from Lents passages de l’ombre

 

SYLVIANE DUPUIS
from Musicales

 

KURT AEBLI
An Old Gaping Wound Wheedling Out An Unmasked Smile

 

FABIO PUSTERLA
Saturday in Sintra
Star, Meteor, Some Shooting Thing

 

CHRISTIAN UETZ
And From You

 

ANDREAS NEESER
Mirandouro de São Pedro de Alcântara

 

CLAIRE GENOUX
from Saisons du corps

 

RAPHAEL URWEIDER
[in the mildness of the afternoon the]
[brown dustbeetles everywhere brown]

 

ITALY
RAFFAELLO BALDINI
The Knife
Picking

 

GIAMPIERO NERI
[seeing him again has not been pleasant.]
Overlappings

 

DARIO BELLEZZA
[I believe I should have a child:]
[I licked you between dirty sheets,]

 

MAURIZIO CUCCHI
Letter and Player
[From the Cairo to Loreto]
[He left throwing us]
[Why do you breathe on my head?]

 

VIVIAN LAMARQUE
At Vacation's End
To Pasolini
Little Girl
The Lady of the Snow

 

PATRIZIA CAVALLI
[To simulate the burning of the heart, the humiliation]
[The rain brings me back]
[Almost always he who is content is also vulgar;]

 

FRANCO BUFFONI
[Techniques of criminal investigation]
[If you don't know what it means in English to maroon]

 

ANTONELLA ANEDDA
from Winter Dwellings
Earth

 

VALERIO MAGRELLI
[I have often imagined that glances]
[I have from you this red]
[Evenings, when the light dims]

 

DAVIDE RONDONI
An Italian Evening
Michelangelo's Pietà, Carriage

 

MALTA
IMMANUEL MIFSUD
The Day of the Dead (in Bratislava)
The Twentieth of September

 

ROMANIA
DANIEL BANULESCU
You'll Shrivel Up You'll Be an Exotic Fruit

 

RADU ANDRIESCU
Bloody Bad Shit

 

RUXANDRA CESEREANU
The Killer

 

MILAIL GALATANU
At the Virgin's Breast

 

O. NIMIGEAN
The Barren Woman
11 May 1998

 

IOANA NICOLAIE
Suspended

 

DAN SOCIU
As Big as China
Tenderly Caressed Sucked Licked and Spanked

 

MOLDOVA
EMILIAN GALAICU-PAUN
Pietà (Ivy on the Cross)

 

ALEXANDRU VAKULOVSKI
Amputated Homeland
Bessarabia go home

 

GREECE
YIORGOS CHOULIARAS
Occupied City
Refugees
Borges in Crete
Pencil in the Bread

 

LIANA SAKELLIOU
The Lion, the Sleeping Woman, and the Island
Variations

 

HARIS VLAVIANOS
De Imagine Mundi
Hotel Athena
Gloriana

 

MARIGO ALEXOPOULOU
Chinese Woman's Spirit
Manuscripts of Autumn Small Prayer
One Night with Seferis

 

CYPRUS
STEPHANOS STEPHANIDES
Ars Poetica: Sacred or Daemonic

 

LYSANDROS PITHARAS
Green Line

 

GÜR GENÇ
Kiss My Corpse
I Worshipped Too Many Gods

 

TURKEY

ENIS BATUR
F Minor—D-940
Dear Bartleby
Face-to-Face Conversation IX

 

HAYDAR ERGÜLEN
Pomegranate

 

LALE MÜLDÜR
311 series 2 (Turkish red)
548 series 2 (blauwviolet)

 

MUSTAFA ZIYALAN
Days

 

SAMIS BAYDAR
Gigi
Here It's Coming

 

SEYHAN ERÖZÇELIIK
from Rosestrikes

 

KÜÇÜK MADAK
Sir, I Want to Write Poems with Flowers

 

BULGARIA

EDVIN SUGAREV
Liminal Moments

 

LYUBOMIR NIKOLOV
Apples
[I'm the master of the empty house.]

 

BIOKO LAMBOVSKI
The Clay Man

 

MIRELA IVANOVA
Apologetic Telegram

 

KRISTIN DIMITROVA
A Visit to the Clockmaker

 

GEORGI GOSPODINOV
The Ritual
The Love Rabbit

 

MACEDONIA
KATA KULAVKOVA
Bronchitis (a psychopoem)

 

ZORAN ANCEVSKI
What's Slouching

 

LIDIJA DIMKOVSKA
Decent Girl

 

ALBANIA
VISAR ZHITI
Hunger Strike

 

MIMOZA AHMETI
Extinction

 

GAZMEND KRASNIQI
Adam

 

LULJETA LLESHANAKU
Fresco

 

LINDITA ARAPI
Walls

 

KOSOVO
EQREM BASHA
The nightingale sings

 

FLORA BROVINA
The Year 1981

 

ABDULLAH KONUSHEVCI
Heavy Burden, Your Fragile Body

 

SERBIA
RADMILA LAZIC
Anthropomorphic Wardrobe

 

NOVICA TADIC
Antipsalm

 

MILAN ÐORÐEVIC
Far Away from Forest Sounds

 

ZVONKA KARANOVIC
Melancholy

 

DRAGAN JOVANOVIC DANILOV
On a Sunday Afternoon, a Soul is a Fascinating Fascist

 

MARIJA KNEŽEVIC
On-Site Investigation V

 

SAŠA JELENKOVIC
Fortress

 

ANA RISTOVIC
Snow in Your Shoes

 

MONTENEGRO
BALŠA BRKOVIC
The Babylon Song

 

ALEKSANDAR BECANOVIC
Pessoa: On Four Addresses

 

PAVLE GORANOVIC
Great Preparations

About the Author(s)

By Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer

Wayne Miller teaches at the University of Central Missouri, where he is editor of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing. He is the author of a book of poems, Only the Senses Sleep, and cotranslator of I Don't Believe in Ghosts by Albanian poet Moikom Zeqo.

 

Kevin Prufer is the author of four books of poems, most recently National Anthem, and editor of The New Young American Poets and, with Joy Katz, Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems. He teaches at the University of Central Missouri, where he is editor of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing.

Table of Contents

Part II 

 

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
MILE STOJIC
House on Ice

 

FERIDA DURAKOVIC
Paper Tea

 

SEMEZDIN MEHMEDINOVIC
War

 

MILJENKO JERGOVIC
Feldwebel Zorn's Motorcycle

 

SENADIN MUSABEGOVIC
Dawn at Auschwitz

 

CROATIA
BRANKO MALEŠ
Crystal

 

ANKA ŽAGAR
Journey

 

BRANKO CEGEC
Eyes, Ears, Mirrors

 

DELIMIR REŠICKI
Radio

 

KRESIMIR BAGIC
a house

 

DAMIR ŠODAN
Durruti 1936

 

TATJANA GROMACA
I Like It When You Come Around with Your Friends

 

SLOVENIA
BORIS A. NOVAK
Uni-verse

 

ALEŠ DEBELJAK
Cast Vote

 

BARBARA KORUN
Every Breath You Take

 

UROŠ ZUPAN
May

 

ALEŠ ŠTEGER
The Returning of What Is to Come

 

HUNGARY
IMRE ORAVECZ
Soldier's Graves
The Hole

 

ÁKOS SZILAGYI
O!       
You Think

 

BÉLA BODOR
What to Expect

 

ANDRAS PETÖCZ
The Lake at Dawn
A Banal Poem. Subject: Love
In Praise of the Sea

 

FLÓRA IMRE
Snow Covers the Garden

 

SLOVAKIA
MILA HAUGOVÁ
To Withstand Evil
Alpha Centauri

 

DANA PODRACKÁ
A Diary

 

JOZEF URBAN
I Blow My Nose Inartistically

 

IVAN KOLENIC
Skin Is a Wrapping of Bones

 

RÓBERT GÁL
from Epigraffiti

 

MARTIN SOLOTRUK
How to Endure the Sun if Not Tiptoeing

 

CZECH REPUBLIC
IVANA BOZDECHOVÁ
Everyday Occurrence

 

SYLVA FISHEROVÁ
The Only Place
The Language of the Fountains
Eggs, Newspaper, and Coffee

 

PETR HRUŠKA
Door
At the Claws

 

PETR BORKOVEC
[We do what? We are involved in space,]

 

KATERINA PINOSOVÁ
from Lake Poems

 

KATERINA RUDCENKOVÁ
[Yes, I live inside the piano,]
Nowhere

 

POLAND
PIOTR SOMMER
A Certain Tree in Powazki
Cemetery
Space
Don't Sleep, Take Notes

 

BOZENA KEFF
What's in my pocket
Dream of the Meaning of Dreams

 

ANDRZEJ SOSNOWSKI
Five Fathoms Down
Errata

 

MARCIN SWIETLICKI
Preface
Song of the Ill

 

EUGENIUSZ TKACZYSZYN-DYCKI
Foodstone
In the hallway of the regional
hospital

 

MARZANNA BOGUMILA KIELAR
[Frost ropes in the ditch: nothing could break through,]
Winter Elegy
Early Spring

 

KRZYSZTOF KOEHLER
[A new language: the language]
[Two columns of smoke]

 

MARCIN SENDECKI
Good Later
[A little coat, white up till now,]

 

EWA SONNENBERG
Internal Manifesto I
Uncertainty

 

ADAM WIEDMANN
Notable Essay: Music
Calypso

 

DARIUSZ SUSKA
Light
Death is the top player in our playground

 

ARTUR SZLOSAREK
Imagination
Temptation

 

BELARUS
VICTAR SHALKEVICH
[I want to tell you what speaks to me most—]

 

MIKHAS BAJARYN
[creating a homer is less complicated than you might imagine]

 

ANDREJ KHADANOVICH
Commedia

 

VIKTAR ŽYBUL
[I don't want to be the navel of the Earth.]

 

VALZHYNA MORT
Belarusian I
Belarusian II
[Maybe you too sometimes fantasize]

 

UKRAINE
OLEH LYSHEHA
Song 551
Song 352

 

NATALKA BILOTSERKIVETS
Hotel Central

 

YURKO ANDRUKHOVYCH
Jamaica the Cossack

 

OKSANA ZABUZHKO
A Definition of Poetry
Letter from the Summer House

 

VICTOR NEBORAK
What He Does . . .
Flying Head

 

ANDRIY BONDAR
the men of my country

 

SERHIY ZHADAN
Alcohol

 

RUSSIA
ELENA SHVARTS
Remembrance of Strange
Hospitality

 

REGINA DERIEVA
Theory of Recruiting
[From a land of institutes to a land of prostitutes.]
Dark thoughts

 

OLGA SEDAKOVA
Female Figure

 

ALEXANDER EREMENKO
[Dip us in fire or water,]

 

SERGEY GANDLEVSKY
To My Mother

 

EVGENII BUNIMOVICH
Excuse and Explanation

 

IRINA RATUSHINSKAYA
[I will live and survive and be asked:]

 

TATYANA SHCHERBINA
About Limits

 

ALEXEI PARSHCHIKOV
Estuary

 

KATIA KAPOVICH
Parting makes simple sense

 

VERA PAVLOVA
Four Poems

 

DMITRY GOLYNKO
Passing the Church of the French Consulate

 

BORIS RYZHII
Cinema

 

POLINA BARSKOVA
Manuscript Found by Natasha Rostova During the Fire
to A.K

 

DARYA SUKHOVEI
Spring Scales

 

LITHUANIA
EUGENIJUS ALIŠANKA
from the case of bones

 

GINTARAS GRAJAUSKAS
World in Your Pocket
The Night Watchman

 

DAIVA ÈEPAUSKAITË
Love, a Last Glance

 

NERINGA ABRUTYTE
The Beginning

 

LAURYNAS KATKUS
Later On
Žvërynas in Winter

 

MARIUS BUROKAS
Simpleton

 

LATVIA
LIÂNA LANGA
Galanteria N. I, 7, 9

 

INGA ABELE
Autumn Recipe

 

INGA GAILE
The wind smooths out all the wrinkles and light beacons in our eyes,
To leave, flee, lope, swim away with

 

RONALDS BRIEDIS
Silence
Before addressing the people

 

ESTONIA
ASKO KÜNNAP
O night, my car

 

FS
[we are born in hospitals]
[the hangover in our shared body]

 

KARL MARTIN SINIJÄRV
I am a Poemmaker
Arcadia

 

ELO VIIDING
The Extraordinary Importance of a Private Life

 

FINLAND
TUA FORSSTRÖM
It's beautiful in Sicily in the spring when the lemon trees are in bloom
from Minerals

 

ILPO TIIHONEN
Septet to the Great Bear

 

LEEVI LEHTO
A Sliced Guitar

 

MARTIN ENCKELL
Saint Petersburg

 

LAURI OTONKOSKI
Herbal Wisdom
from The Poetry Track

 

HELENA SINERVO
Postcard

 

ANNI SUMARI
Fete

 

SÁPMI
NILS ASLAK VALKEAPÄÄ
from Trekways of the Wind

 

SWEDEN
ARNE JOHNSSON
Sketch XXV
from Part of this and separate as everyone

 

BRUNO K. ÖIJER
*
*

 

KATARINA FROSTENSON
Echo's Gorge
Sonnet from Shadow of a Gift

 

EVA RUNEFELT
Carnation
The Slowness

 

ELISABETH RYNELL
The Womb

 

ANN JÄDERLUND
three poems from Soon into the Summer I Will Walk Out

 

MAGNUS WILLIAM-OLSSON
(Analogia)

 

HÅKAN SANDELL
Nature Motre: iv. On an Eggshell

 

NORWAY
BJØRN AAMODT
Five untitled poems

 

TOR ULVEN
[They dance far]

 

ØYSTEIN WINGAARD WOLF
The Soapmaker
[Your left hand]

 

HENNING KRAMER DAHL
Practicing Ballerina

 

CATHERINE GRØNDAHL
Selected Exercises in Case Law II
The Law Is the Mediterranean

 

PERDRO CARMONA-ALVAREZ
60 Minutes

CORNELIUS JAKHELLN
Sèma (sign).
[Not to be is Nothing's only quality.]

 

ICELAND
ELÍSABET JÖKULSDÓTTIR
The Divorce Children

 

GYRDIR ELÍSSON
Nocturne

 

KRISTIN ÓMARSDÓTTIR
Closed Bridal Night

 

SIGURBJÖRG THRASTARDÓTIR
And Your Tears

 

DENMARK
PIA JUUL
Novel

 

NIELS FRANK
Conspiracies
In the Californian Back Yard

 

ADDA DJØRUP
The Nth day of the Nth Month

 

GERMANY
ULLA HAHN
Respectable Sonnet

 

URSULA KRECHEL
My Mother

 

ANGELA KRAUSS
Leipzig, 1999

 

GERHARD FALKNER
You Sleep

KURT DRAWERT
You Sleep

 

BERT PAPENFUSS
on edge

 

THOMAS KLING
stratum I (petrarch)
stratum III (beatrice)

 

UWE KOLBE
Never now anywhere

 

DIETER M. GRÄF
While Dancing: A Paradigm

 

ZEHRA ÇIRAK
Friendly Fire

 

KERSTIN HENSEL
At the Flea Market

 

ZAFER SENOCAK
M

ULRIKE DRAESNER
hyacinth colic

 

DURS GRÜNBEIN
In the Provinces 2 (In Gotland)

 

LUTZ SEILER
concrete

 

ULF STOLTERFOHT
Jargons IV (2)

 

MARCEL BEYER
Snow

 

NICOLAI KOBUS
anna

 

JAN WAGNER
fall villanelle

 

JAN VOLKER RÖHNERT
Longing Is a Blind Sail . . .

 

DANIEL FALB
a social still life in the line of Vermeer

 

TOBIAS GRÜTERICH
5 aphorisms

 

STEFFEN POPP
Silvae (lit)

 

ULJANA WOLF
Recovery Room

 

AUSTRIA/LICHTENSTEIN
EVELYN SCHLAG
Lesson

 

MICHAEL DONHAUSER
The Apple

 

PETER WATERHOUSE
About What Is a Hand And What Is in the Hand

 

OSWALD EGGER
[Only, sometimes coast herons fly in a low V]

 

RAOUL SCHROTT
Twilight Phenomena II

 

HELWIG BRUNNER
[Reading into the face how the skin]

 

THE NETHERLANDS
EVA GERLACH
Leda
Fed Up

 

TONNUS OOSTERHOF
There was a man
Button Box
Secret Agent

 

MARJOLEINE DE VOS
Mrs. Despina sees a rhinoceros
Mrs. Despina goes swimming
Death he has your voice

 

ESTHER JANSMA
from Picnic on the Spiral Staircase

 

NACHOEM M. WIJNBERG
I Am a Doctor
Psalm
In the dream of an angel

 

BELGIUM
WILLIAM CLIFF
Ballade of the Mouse

 

WERNER LAMBERSY
from Linnaeus' clock

 

STEPHAN HERTMANS
Death on a pale horse
First Steps
While sketching

 

ERIK SPINOY
from Susette

 

ENGLAND
MIMI KHALVATI
Ghazal

 

SELIMA HILL
North Carolina

 

DENISE RILEY
Milk Ink

 

SEAN O’BRIEN
Cities

 

JO SHAPCOTT
Phrase Book

 

MONIZA ALVI
Fish

 

BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
White Comedy

 

MARK FORD
We Crave

 

GLYN MAXWELL
State of the Nation

 

SIMON ARMITAGE
Kid

 

FIONA SAMPSON
Hayfever portrait

 

WALES
SHEENAGH PUGH
Golden Rabbits

 

GWYNETH LEWIS
Mother Tongue

 

SCOTLAND
JOHN BURNSIDE
De Humani Corporis Fabrica

 

ROBERT CRAWFORD
A Scottish Assembly

 

W. N. HERBERT
Scaldfoot

 

JACKIE KAY
Virus

 

KATHLEEN JAMIE
Wee wifey

 

DON PATERSON
An Elliptical Stylus

 

DREW MILNE
A modest preposition

 

NORTHERN IRELAND
CIARAN CARSON
The Words

 

MEDBH MCGUCKIAN
On Ballycastle Beach

 

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
NUALA NÍ DHOMHNAILL
The Language Issue

 

VONA GROARKE
The Riverbed

 

CONOR O'CALLAGHAN
The Pilot Light

 

ABOUT THE POETS

 

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS

 

ABOUT THE EDITORS

 

PERMISSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS