Since Coldfront didn’t mention any books of poetry not originally in English in their list of the top 40 poetry books of 2014, and since we don’t want to wallow in bitterness, we present…
Drumroll…
Entropy’s Top 93 Top Poetry Books in Translation in 2014!
Yes, in fact, there were only 93 books of translated poetry published in the United States in 2014 (according to the Three Percent database). 93 books to represent the entirety of world poetry in other languages! So few, you say?
This is an old and by much-discussed situation: the US doesn’t translate and publish many authors from other countries, especially not in comparison with other countries. US literary culture is insular and isolated. US literary culture is all too wary of translations (¿¡¿what if something is lost?!?). And if translations do get published, attention is less than overwhelming. So when a list like Coldfront’s—full of contemporary writers we love—misses all of these books, it’s worth pointing it out. We could select our favorite books from this list, but honestly, there are only 93! We want to let the love go to all of them.
So yes, these were definitely the best. No doubt about that. We are 100% sure these are the absolute best.
Here goes:
- What Have You Carried Over? by Gulten Akin, Various translators from Turkish, Talisman House
- Sleepless Eye by Ibrahim al-Koni, Translated by Roger Allen from Arabic, Syracuse University Press
- Fullblood Arabian by Osama Alomar, Translated by C. J. Collins from Arabic, New Directions
- Chronic Hearting by Cristina Annino, Translated by Adria Bernardi from Italian, Chelsea Editions
- Amnesia of the Movement of Clouds & Of Red and Black Verse by Maria Attanasio, Translated by Carla Billitteri from Italian, Litmus Books
- Digamma by Yves Bonnefoy, Translated by Hoyt Rogers from French, Seagull Books
- Collected Poems by Rainer Brambach, Translated by Esther Kinsky from German, Seagull Books
- Rubble Flora by Volker Braun, Translated by David Constantine from German, Seagull Books
- Love Poems by Bertolt Brecht, Translated by David Constantine from German, Liveright
- Breathturn into Timestead by Paul Celan, Translated by Pierre Joris from French, FSG
- Diorama by Rocio Ceron, Translated by Anna Rosenwong from Spanish, Phoneme Books
- Return to My Native Land by Aime Cesaire, Translated by Anna Bostock and John Berger from French, Archipelago
- Seven Dreams by Feliciano Sancez Chan, Translated by Jonathan Harrington from Mayan, New Native Press
- Hypnos by Rene Char, Translated by Mark Hutchinson from French, Seagull Books
- I Must Be the Wind Moon by Chung-hee, Translated by Richard Silberg from Korean, White Pine
- Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish, Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid from Arabic, New York Review Books
- Across Borders by Xue Di, Translated by Alison Friedman from Chinese, Green Integer
- Endarkenment by Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Translated by Eugene Ostashevsky from Russian, Wesleyan University Press
- Acrobat by Celia Dropkin, Translated by Faith Jones from Yiddish, Tebot Bach
- Openwork by Andre Du Bouchet, Translated by Paul Auster from French, Yale University Press
- Seven String Quartets by Frederic Forte, Translated by Matthew Smith from French, Fence Books
- Selected Poems by Corsino Fortes, Translated by Daniel Hahn from Portuguese, Archipelago
- Starry Womb by Mihail Galatanu, Translated by Adam Sorkin from Romanian, Dialogos
- Description of the Lie by Antonio Gamoneda, Translated by Donald Wellman from Spanish, Talisman House
- Alma Venus by Pere Gimferrer, Translated by Adrian West from Spanish, Antilever
- Poems to Read on a Streetcar by Oliverio Girondo, Translated by Heather Cleary from Spanish, New Directions
- Eros Is More by Juan Antonio Gonzalez Iglesias, Translated by Curtis Bauer from Spanish, Alice James Books
- I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan Ed. Eliza Griswold, Translated by Eliza Griswold from Pashto, FSG
- Chronicles of Majnun Layla and Selected Poems by Qassim Haddad, Translated by Ferial Ghazoul from Arabic, Syracuse University Press
- Iceland Sakutaro by Hagiwara, Translated by Hiroaki Sato from Japanese, New Directions
- Song of Shadows by Xiao Hai, Translated by Zhu Yu from Chinese, Restless Books
- Guarding the Air by Gunnar Harding, Translated by Roger Greenwald from Swedish, Black Widow Press
- Always Rebellious by Georgina Herrera, Translated by Maria Rodriguez-Alcala from Spanish, Cubanabooks
- God and the End of Satan: Selections by Victor Hugo, Translated by R. G. Skinner from French, Swan Isle Press
- Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon, Translated by Don Mee Choi from Korean, Action Books
- Phoenix by Ouyang Jianghe, Translated by Austin Woerner from Chinese, Zephyr Press
- One Is None by Katlin Kaldmaa, Translated by Miriam McIlfatrick-Ksenofontov from Estonian, Midsummer Night’s Press
- October Dedications by Mang Ke, Translated by Lucas Klein from Chinese, Zephyr Press
- Where Are the Trees Going? by Venus Khoury-Ghata, Translated by Marilyn Hacker from French, Curbstone
- One Day, Then Another by Kwang-Kyu Kim, Translated by Young-Shil Cho from Korean, White Pine
- Puppets in the Wind by Karl Krolow, Translated by Stuart Friebert from German, Bitter Oleander Press
- I Wait for the Moon by Momoko Kuroda, Translated by Abigail Friedman from Japanese, Stone Bridge Press
- Canyon in the Body by Lan Lan, Translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain from Chinese, Zephyr Press
- Missing Pieces by Henri Lefebvre, Translated by David Sweet from French, Semiotext(e)
- Pybrac by Piere Louys, Translated by Geoffrey Longnecker from French, Wakefield Press
- L Notebook by Sabine Macher, Translated by Eleni Sikelianos from French, Fence Books
- Withering World by Sandor Marai, Translated by John Ridland from Hungarian, Alma
- Wallless Space by Ernst Meister, Translated by Graham Foust from German, Wave Books
- Rain of the Future by Valerie Mejer, Translated by A.S. Zelman-Doring, Forrest Gander, and C.D. Wright from Spanish, Action Books
- Out of the Dust by Klaus Merz, Translated by Marc Vincenz from German, Spuyten Duyvil
- Thousand Times Broken by Henri Michaux, Translated by Gillian Conoley from French, City Lights
- Iraqi Nights by Dunya Mikhail, Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid from Arabic, New Directions
- Homing Instincts by Nancy Morejon, Translated by Pamela Carmell from Spanish, Cubanabooks
- Star by My Head by Malena Morling, Translated by Jonas Ellerstrom from Swedish, Milkweed
- At the End of Sleep by Tal Nitzan, Various translators from Hebrew, Restless Books
- Light Everywhere by Cees Nooteboom, Translated by David Colmer from Dutch, Seagull Books
- Selected Poems by Sean O Riordain, Various translators from Irish, Yale University Press
- Light within the Shade by Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, Translated by Frederick Turner from Hungarian, Syracuse University Press
- Selected Poetry by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Translated by Stephen Sartarelli from Italian, University of Chicago
- Book of Anger by Marta Petreu, Translated by Adam Sorkin from Romanian, Dialogos
- Secret of Hoa Sen by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, Translated by Bruce Weigl from Vietnamese, BOA Editions
- Diana’s Tree by Alejandra Pizarnik, Translated by Yvette Siegert from Spanish, Ugly Duckling
- Mirror of Dew by Alam-Taj Zhale Qa’em-Maqami, Translated by Asghar Seyed-Gohrab from Persian, Ilex Foundation
- Every Third Thought by Giovanni Raboni, Translated by Michael Palma from Italian, Chelsea Editions
- Movement Through the End: A Portrait of Pain by Philippe Rahmy, Translated by Rosemary Lloyd from French, Bitter Oleander Press
- Interior Landscape by A. K. Ramanujan, Translated by A. K. Ramanujan from Tamil, New York Review Books
- Alliance and Condemnation by Claudio Rodriguez, Translated by Philip Silver from Spanish, Swan Isle Press
- Letters to Milena by Reina Maria Rodriguez, Translated by Kristin Dykstra from Spanish, University of Alabama Press
- Soy Realidad by Tomas Salamun, Translated by Michael Thomas Taren from Slovenian, Dalkey Archive
- Poetics of Wonder: Passage to Mogador by Alberto Ruy Sanchez, Translated by Rhonda Buchanan from Spanish, White Pine
- only fragments found by Giovanna Sandri, Translated by Guy Bennett from Italian, Otis Books
- Dissection by Care Santos, Translated by Lawrence Schimel from Spanish, Midsummer Night’s Press
- Derangements of My Contemporaries by Li Shangyin, Translated by Chloe Garcia-Roberts from Chinese, New Directions
- End of the City Map by Farhad Showghi, Translated by Rosmarie Waldrop from German, Burning Deck Press
- Patterns by Lee Si-young, Translated by Brother Anthony from Korean, Green Integer
- Skin by Tone Skrjanec, Translated by Matthew Rohrer from Slovenian, Tavern Books
- Guantanamo by Frank Smith, Translated by Vanessa Place from French, Les Figues
- World Shared by Dariusz Sosnicki, Translated by Piotr Florczyk from Polish, BOA Editions
- Anything Could Happen by Jana Putrle, Translated by Srdic Barbara Jursa from Slovenian, Midsummer Night’s Press
- Mountain Poems of Stonehouse By Stonehouse, Translated by Red Pine from Chinese, Copper Canyon
- White Tea Bowl by Mitsu Suzuki, Translated by Kate McCandless from Japanese, Rodmell Press
- Sheds/Hangars by Jose-Flore Tappy, Translated by John Taylor from French, Bitter Oleander Press
- Spines of Love by Victor Teran, Translated by David Shook from Zapotec, Restless Books
- Moscow in the Plague Year by Marina Tsvetaeva, Translated by Christopher Whyte from Russian, Archipelago
- Fifteen Iraqi Poets, Translated by Dunya Mikhail from Arabic, New Directions
- Full Load of Moonlight, Translated by David Lunde from Chinese, Musical Stone Culture
- Selected Poetry by Emilio Villa, Translated by Dominic Siracusa from Italian, Contra Mundum Press
- Wandering Hong Kong with Spirits by Liu Waitong, Translated by Desmond Sham from Chinese, Zephyr Press
- Something Crosses My Mind by Wang Xiaoni, Translated by Eleanor Goodman from Chinese, Zephyr Press
- Grass Roots by Xiang Yang, Translated by John Balcolm from Chinese, Zephyr Press
- Selected Poems 1957-2009 by Mikhail Yeryomin, Translated by Jim Kates from Russian, White Pine
- Salsa by Hsia Yü, Translated by Steve Bradbury from Chinese, Zephyr Press
