In Alphabetical Order

24 worldliteraturetoday.org A, dense and fuzzy, for amnesia. B for a tipsy bateau that navigates the night beneath a moon in C, climbing enigma. D for distended deserts and E from which the Euphrates flows. Fatalistic F of an agonizing infinity and the G of sonorous darkness, like a silver hook grabbing your gullet. H in its abstraction of hermetic absence. Column constructed by I, J’s supporting staff. The dance of the deceased that makes K: kyrie eleison, and an L forged of lips and liquid night. M’s crown (and that nereid N which a dolphin, leaping over, transformed to an Ñ). O’s ring of fire a trained tiger jumps through to surprise. Butterflies that die in P’s net. The smoking face of Q. R that is the root of all roses. S for the serpent that slithers through all our paradises. T for the twinkling twilight and U like an urn of dark-honey moon in our mouth. Those siamese U’s in Shakespeare’s signature. X for mystery and arithmetic. Y (which can describe our link to abstract and luminous Greece), able to link lavender and night, Camelot and snow. Z for an unreachable zenith. Taken together, they order our world, and add sound to thought, an echo of water to the sea, a tremor of tenuous glass to all those shipwrecked spells we each cast every day. Translation from the Spanish By Anna Rosenwong In Alphabetical Order Felipe Benítez Reyes top photo : thibault roland rosenwong photo : jesse chan norris Felipe Benítez Reyes was born in Rota (Cádiz, España) in 1960. A poet, novelist, essayist, and columnist, his work has been translated into many languages. His extensive awards include Spain’s Premio de la Crítica, the Premio Nacional de Literatura, and the coveted Premio Nadal. Two full-length books are available in English: Probable Lives and The Errant Astrologers. Anna Rosenwong is a translator, editor, and higher educator. Her book-length publications include Rocío Cerón’s Diorama, José Eugenio Sánchez’s Suite Prelude A/H1N1, and an original collection of poetry, By Way of Explanation. Her work has been featured in the Kenyon Review, Saint Petersburg Review, Pool, Two Lines, and elsewhere. ...