Ricochet Review Translations Issue 3

Maria De Leon[ INTERLUDE: Lilies ]Lush nature fills the greenthe little bridge, Engulfedpink lilies, sprinkled alongthe water, obscuring thereflectionsserene air caresses all ittouchesbeauty of lilies erases theuglya reservoir to forget

Liu Nian

Liu NianTHE RUINThe locks are rusting, the paint is peeling, the walls await collapse,for this I rename this prosperous piece ruin.A black chariot drives by,yet no one cares to ask if a real doctor or a witch doctor is inside,therefore I will rename the silent crow on the broken post solitude.The growing foxtail conceals the sunset and temple where prayerswaste away.I grant the three-legged stone lion guardian my name.Nature is a force hard to resist much rather contravene,the continuous seasons are nurturing to their own, so I will renamethis land, my love.Time and flourishing words are not enough to cover everything,one can definitely find pieces of porcelain and bones to affirm thepast.For this I will call this lifeless ruin prosperity.Those describing about fortune and palaces can do the same forhaystacksstanding on a haystack, one sees their hometown, crows, and death,therefore I will name the golden evening breeze tormentand the crow with its stretched wings slicing through the silence, Iwill name hope. Translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Remi Oyeleye

Remi Oyeleye TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONI chose to translate from Mandarin Chinese to English because ofmy experience with Chinese in both middle school and high school.The appeal of the language from the very start was mainly em-ployability, and personal and social development, so there wasn’tany reluctance or uncertainty when it came to picking Chinese.When it came to the process of translating itself, there were times Ifelt frustrated because the words had gotten lost in translation andsome references were misplaced. What I had expected was a relativelysmooth translation, yet sadly it seemed as I had underestimated thetranslation process as it had me unsure several times, whether my in-terpretation of the work at hand was the one the author had intendedthe work to invoke in the reader. What actually happened was that Iwas able to sit down with my Chinese teacher, and as the saying goes,“two heads are better than one.” The reader may pinpoint where mymentor and I had gotten stuck on and left it as the literal translation.

Russ Elliott TEACHER’S REFLECTIONTranslating poetry is a special kind of mental workout. Proficiency intwo languages does not guarantee that you can do it well. It isn’t just amatter of directly transferring one set of words to another, like mov-ing something to a new location. It’s more like dismantling someoneelse’s work, analyzing the parts, discarding this, replacing that, andthen rebuilding in a different way, with different material, hoping that itstill resembles the original structure. It’s even more challenging whenyou aren’t sure if you had an accurate picture of the original work.Classical Chinese poetry often works with popular themes, universalsymbols, and allusions that can be understood with some study. LiuNian’s poetry is nothing like classical poetry, and I have very littleexperience with contemporary Chinese poetry of this kind, so theoriginal text posed some problems for me. Remi and I both strug-gled with the stanza about the “black chariot.” I still don’t under-stand that stanza but Remi bravely took an interpretation and wentwith it. We tried to understand it in terms of the poem’s recurringthemes of ruin, destruction, and renaming. I think it’s fitting thatRemi wrote a translation for a poem about rewriting or assigningnames and new meaning to things. This is what a poet does to hisexperience and surroundings. It is also what a translator must do.In the end, this poem led to interesting discussions about our inter-pretations. Any poet would be proud to have sparked such thoughtand conversation.

Erika Anderson[ INTERLUDE: The Great Wave of Kanagawa ]Do not fear for your lifeas the soft froth descendsthe icy waveupon your shouldersLook to the mountainfor your last hopeYou may overcomethe Great Wave of Kanagawa

Benilda SantosANG SABI KO SA IYOBumalong ang dagtasa hiniwang kaimito.Namuo sa talimng kutsilyo ang ilang patak.Diyan ako naiwan, mahal,at hindi sa laman.

Benilda SantosWHAT I TOLD YOUThe sliced kaimito’s*Resin flows.The droplets settled, dried up,On the sharp edge of the knife.There I was left, my love,and not in the flesh. Translated from the Tagalog by Gabriel Aco*type of fruit

Gabriel Aco TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONFor this translation, I was able to obtain poems from a known poet.It was professional and I felt pleasantly mature. The actual processof translating from another language was brand new to me. I don’tknow Tagalog fluently, so I originally used Google Translate. When Ibrought my raw translation back to our editorial board, I found outthere was an entirely different meaning to the poem. After decipher-ing each word in the draft, I was able to discover what the poemmeant to me. After more revisions, I asked my parents to finalize mydraft. They added heaps of input in deciphering the poem becausethe poem referenced many Filipino aspects that they were famil-iar with. The entire translation and editing process was a success!

‫‪Yusuf Shazad‬‬ ‫ک یمدا ره وهوج‪،‬نشور لد کیا‬ ‫اک نشور کیا اگنیاج نب هلسلس‬ ‫اک دیما یگیاجا ناج یسرهپ‬ ‫اک یگدنز یک بس اگ یلدب هیواز‬ ‫اکسهک رهتپ ک هار اک یمدا ره وج نشور لد‬ ‫اک یتسود اگ یلهک هزاورد یسرهپ یهب راخ‬ ‫اک ینمشد هتسر یگنیاجوه ناسا نیلزنم‬ ‫اک یمدا ره وج اوه نشور لد کیا‬ ‫یتسار وک بس وج هتسر ایگ لم یرطپ یم هومدق یگوه یبایماک‬ ‫اگ نیاج لم وج نه هتسکیش لد اک‬ ‫اک یشوخ رس اگوه نافوط کیا یم لد‬ ‫اک یمدا ره اوهوج نشور لد کیا‬ ‫اک یگل لد هچک هلماعم ی یهن یه یگدیجنس هداز یه مزال یم سا‬‫اک ینشور یی یهر یراج هلسلس اک یگاتساش یهی با اضاقت یه‬ ‫اک یمدا ره اوه نشور لد کیا‬

ENLIGHTENED HEART Yusuf ShazadEvery enlightened hearta bundle of light, gushing:kindness, forgiveness, happiness.Hope reborn,pessimists blossominto optimists.Stones and thornsthrown from their paths.Impossible goalsaccomplished, roads to enmitypermanently closed.Success tackles you,hearts of sorrow and mirthrestored.The pursuit of happiness,a serious oneundiscouraged, unmocked.For this light to eternally shine,cultivate this light –ethical and loving. Translated from the Urdu by Aymann Shaikh

Aymann Shaikh TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONTranslating for Ricochet Review was enjoyable, yet it was no easytask. It’s extremely hard to keep the essence of a poem intact whentranslating from the original language to another. Poems are piecesof art incorporating culture and the ideals of a people from a cer-tain area. It’s hard to keep those ideals flowing while translating apoem into another language. It wasn’t difficult to find a poem inUrdu since my grandfather is an Urdu poet in India and he gaveme a variety of his poems to choose from. I already know howto read Arabic and Urdu isn’t much different; the same letters areused, but being an Urdu speaker it felt easier to choose an Urdupoem even though I read in Arabic more often and fluently. I hadto read the poem I chose to translate multiple times so I could un-derstand how it’s structured, let alone know what it’s about. Mymentor was my grandfather. He helped me write a raw translationof the poem. The raw translation to me felt like the hardest partof the translation process. I had to learn many Urdu words andtheir English counterparts to write a simple and bland translation.In the end, I felt like my hard work had paid off and I managed tocapture the essence of the poem in the newly translated version.

Kirsten Guerrero[ INTERLUDE: Stilled ]Glued to silent stallionsturning smiling turning smilingrippling laughterclones orbit the cyclefused childhooduntouched

Santiago VizcaínoLA AGUA PARDAHoy no tengo imágenes sangrientas en mis manos.Por eso resuelvo el ejercicio pálido de tu vientre.Por eso resuelvo olvidar tu mueca sobre la página,carcomer la seña que descuelga de tu bocacomo un crucifijo demoniaco.Por eso resuelvo consagrar el vino que te bañay dar la espalda al muro de tu cabecera.Hoy no tengo que corregir este dolor de mundo.Por eso resuelvo quedarme,por eso resuelvo espantarte con la voz del tartamudo,esa que es como un silencio entrecortado—no un lenguaje entrecortado, sino un entrecortadosilencio—.Quiero decir que hoy no tengo con qué lavar tus pies,que no tengo márgenes.Por eso resuelvo.Porque no sé decir,porque este dolor de mundo se hace dolor de carne.Quiero decir un dolor de pez o de pulpo.Por eso resuelvo…Quedarme y corregir el muro,esa horrible pintura sobre tu pared.

Santiago VizcaínoTHE MURKY WATERToday I have no bloody images in my handsThat is why I resolve the exert pale of your wombThat is why I resolve to forget your wrist over the pageGnaw the sign that hangs from your mouthlike a demonic crucifixionThat is why I resolve to consecrate that wine that you bathe inAnd to turn my back on the mural of your headboardToday I do not have to correct the pain of the worldThat is why I resolve to stayThat is why I resolve to frighten you with the voice of the stuttererThat is like a choppy silenceNot a choppy language but instead a choppy silenceI want to say that today I do not have to wash your feetI have no boundariesBut I resolve thatBecause I do not know how to sayBecause this pain of the world becomes a pain of fleshI want to say the pain of fish or octopusThat is why I resolve…Staying and correcting the muralThe horrible painting on your wall. Translated from the Spanish by Cynthia Aguilar and Krystle Oehlberg

Krystle Oehlberg TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONAt the beginning of my translation process, I felt confident that thejob could be easily done and it wouldn’t be much to worry aboutbecause translating from English into a foreign language didn’t seemdifficult. I found out I was mistaken and the translating would bedone from a foreign language into English instead. Personally, Ifound it to be intimidating because I was worried that the poemwouldn’t sound so fluent after I went through the process. I chose totranslate a poem from Spanish into English since I have been speak-ing Spanish my whole life. I’ll be one of many to say that speakingSpanish is completely different from reading and writing it whichwas not something I was used to. This was certainly a learning expe-rience for me because after the poem was translated into English itfelt so emotionless. One of the struggles I went through was find-ing synonyms for words to rebuild the passion that the author hadonce intended without changing the meaning of the poem. Anotherobstacle that I faced was finding a way to contact the publisher ofany poem I wanted to work with. I was never exposed to somethinglike this so I had no idea what I was doing or what I was supposeto look for so I went to seek for help. After being instructed, it be-came a bit easier to go through an endless number of websites andemails to contact a publisher. Though it got tedious, in the end, Iwas able to love every little bit of it. Altogether this learning experi-ence is something that has refined my appreciation for poetry andthe beauty of the words that flow together no matter the language.

Marti Rosen[ INTERLUDE: Oohhh… Alright ]a mascara maskdried sockets,marble stare.Hepburn brows alludehidden animosityeyes a monsoon.no, a canyon.

AnonymousPOEM

Anonymous“Our royal highness”Our royal highnessWe gather in this sacred spaceWe bestow these sacred giftsThrough the spirit of every deitySo we may provide youEverything we need to performThis ritual ceremonyTranslated from the Khmer by Naomi Washer

AnonymousPOEM

Anonymous“We invite the Buddha”We invite the BuddhaInto this space we invite seven monksEnter and reside hereGuide us with your blessingsBring us, your students, happiness Translated from the Khmer by Naomi Washer



Anonymous“Our majesty”Our majestyWe pray in remembranceWe give thanks to our ancestorsWith offeringsWe invite our ancestors to shareIn this dance, this stageConsume the sacramentsWe prepare and bestow upon youWe welcome our teachersInto this place as we begin our ceremonyTranslated from the Khmer by Naomi Washer

Naomi Washer TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONOne thing I love about translation is its inherent mentorship. Iwould guess that many people come to translation through theguidance of a mentor. There is theory to be read, making fig-ures such as John Dryden, Roman Jakobson, and Walter Benja-min mentors for us all. And then there is the writer we translatefrom—whether living or dead, reading these writers in their originallanguage and uncovering relevant cultural knowledge to assist in theact of translation is itself a form of mentorship. A mentor guidesbut does not give all the answers—they provide a majority of thematerial as well as many clues, but they leave the real doing to thestudent, the translator, who is eager to jump into the task. This washow I came to my own practice of translation, and it was quite liter-ally the energy that met me at the door the first time I visited thestaff of Ricochet Review.What I am so impressed by with these students is their ability tomake this work happen. When I began translating, I was unsurewhether or not I had the necessary skills to pursue it. But my men-tor encouraged me that it was not only possible but important forme to do so. I admire the Ricochet Review staff for believing intheir capability to achieve the tasks they set before them. I am im-pressed by their professionalism, their articulateness when discuss-ing poetry and learning the lingo of each themed issue, as well as bytheir inner workings as members of an editorial board. Their intel-lectual curiosity, motivation, and follow-through are truly infectious.

I enjoyed the opportunity to work with Cynthia on translationsof traditional Khmer prayers, used in performance. Here, again,I was impressed with her willingness to dive into translating alanguage she did not know. She brought her experience translatingpoems from Spanish, a native language for her, to our conversa-tions, asking relevant questions about cultural context to make sureshe chose a fitting word. Khmer has no syntactical similarities toEnglish, not to mention the great divide culturally, so our task wasdifficult. I composed my own translations of these poems, theseprayers, with the assistance of a native speaker, and I providedCynthia with necessary cultural context to help guide her choicesof words, syntax, and line breaks. The words and line breaks inmy translations differ from Cynthia’s, but the meanings of each ofthem are the same. These prayers are embedded in ancient Khmerculture; by providing two similar but different translations, Cynthiaand I offer you two opportunities to glimpse a culture and a voicedifferent from our own—poems that bring us all into new under-standing.

Maria Margareta ÖsterholmFrom Unga Fs Bekännelser(I teorin var allt detta lögn och förbannad diktför övirgt är jag allergisk mot äpplen)Kära systrar,det hände sig vid den tiden att det utgick ett påbudom att Den unga F skulle slängas i en sjöhon gick med stenar i fickorna kinderna magendet är botten saltet mot tungan älskadeoch det blev kväll det blev nattden första dagenjag är Den unga F en gång blev jag kastad i en sjö jag bottnade intelängre mina dylika bottnar jag snurrades i strömmen en tå i sandenjag fördes ut mot inga horisonter inga horisonter bar jag stenari fickorna gick själv därii grund och bottenstrandade jag mot en grynnalockade på svanarnafyllde mina lungorläppstiftsröd och trassligvid drunkning tänk på att iakttaga stor förskräckelsemärk väl

Maria Margareta ÖsterholmFrom The Confessions of Young F.When we meet the young F, after being thrown into a lake she is nolonger the heroine in the story. She swims like a dead darling butgets up and writes about the feat in her diary.(In theory, this was all lies and damned poem.Incidentally, I am allergic to apples)Dear sisters,It happened at that time that there went out a decreethat the young F would be thrown in a lake.She went with stones in her pockets, cheeks and stomachground salt on her beloved tongueand there was evening that became night The first dayI’m the young F who once was thrown into a lake, I do not bot-tomedlonger as such bottoms. I spun in the current, one toe that takes inthe sand.I was taken against no horizons. No horizons. I carried stones in my pockets and went into itBasically.

drunkning beivrasjag la kinden mot maneterflötbottenvandringskrynklade händer sluter ögonen i grund och botten tar jagen klunk sjö häver mig botten uppvattnet beträdes på egen riskbadvakta mighåll håll andan Den unga F fläta in förmulttnelsen i håret

I beached on a reefattracted the swansfilled my lungsred lipstick tangled by drowningand I remembered to observe thegreat terrordrowning ferventI lay my cheek against a floating jellyfishwrinkled hands close my eyesI take a step into the lake, which accentuates mestep on the water at your own risksave mehold, hold your breath for the young F decay in her braided hairBeautiful, dead, wet hair scraped over the backflowing between the shoulder bladesthe skin full of fish’s kissembrace taken by poweragainst the wind, I can becomethrown into the lake, I will develop gills Translated from the Swedish by Erika Anderson

Erika Anderson TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONWhen Ricochet Review decided that translation would be the nextissue’s theme, I was skeptical, to say the least. I was afraid thatI would simply be copying another poet’s work, style and voice,which is an idea that goes against my poetic identity. Instead, Iwanted to create my own poetry. And in the end, that is exactlywhat I did.Yes, my poem is a translation of Maria Margareta Österholm’soriginal work, but it is also my own interpretation of her words.While translating, I was able to tear the poem apart and then moldit into my own creation. Österholm gave me the Swedish bones ofthe poem, but with the help of my mentor Johannes Göransson Iwas able to create a new flow and voice, making the poem my own.After participating in this year’s issue of Ricochet Review, I learnedhow important translation of foreign poetry is. It overcomes sim-ple boundaries of language, opening members of different dialectsto enjoy the same core human emotions represented in poetry.

Eliot Kafka[ INTERLUDE: Termination ]Blood tiesincendiary painThe dice,if you wouldDon’t get lost leavingIf you need any references –Just ask

Aase Berg I MARSVINGROTTANDär låg marsvinen. Där låg marsvinen och väntade med blod ommun som min syster. Där låg marsvinen och luktade illa i grottan. Därlåg min syster och svällde och värkte och bultade. Där låg marsvinenoch hade ont överallt med benen rakt upp som skalbaggar och sågdepraverade ut och var blå under ögonen som av månaders fördärv.Min syster kräktes stillsamt och likgiltigt, det rann sakta ur hennesslöa mun utan att hon rörde en enda nerv. Och grottan var spenvarmoch full av höstlöv och under jorden låg armen från en skyltdocka.Där låg marsvinen och hade ont och var av deg. Där låg marsvinenbredvid knivarna som skulle skiva dem som limpor. Och min systermed läppar av blåbär, mull och gröt. Långt ute tjöt sirenen omän-skligt. Det var där marsvinen låg och väntade med blod om mun ochsnedvridna kroppar, de väntade. Och jag var trött i hela magen avdegfärs och marsvinslimpa och visste att de skulle hämnas på mig.

Aase Berg IN THE GUINEA PIG CAVEThere lay the guinea pigs. There lay the guinea pigs and they wait-ed with blood around their mouths like my sister. There lay theguinea pigs and they smelled bad in the cave. There lay my sisterand she swelled and ached and throbbed. There lay the guinea pigsand they ached all over and their legs stuck straight up like bee-tles and they looked depraved and were blue under their eyes asfrom months of debauchery. My sister puked calmly and indiffer-ently: it ran slowly out of her slack mouth without her moving asingle nerve. And the cave was warm as teats and full of autumnleaves and beneath the soil lay the arm of a mannequin. There laythe guinea pigs and ached and were made of dough. There lay theguinea pigs beside the knives that would slice them up like loaves.And my sister with lips of blueberries, soil and mush. In the dis-tance, the siren bleated inhumanly. That is where the guinea pigs layand waited with blood around their mouths and contorted bodies.They waited. And I was tired in my whole stomach from meat doughand guinea pig loaf and I knew that they would revenge on me. Translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson

Johannes Göransson MASTER TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONI was glad to help Erika Anderson with her translation project forRicochet Review because I see myself as an activist for translation.Translation not only asks us –as readers, as writers – to considerpoets and poetics attitudes, styles, ideas that may not be present inour own culture, it also asks us to think differently about cultureand language. Once we start thinking about poetry existing in dif-ferent versions, and seeing that process of permutation, it becomeshard to see the poem as a stable, set entity. We begin to read thepoem differently, seeing versions and possibilities inside of it. Simi-larly, there are many strong forces that seeks to create an illusion ofcompleteness, wholeness of culture. But culture – like a text – is avolatile mess of different languages and ideas. While dominant in-stitutions may want a stable idea of culture in order to represent itauthoritatively, the truth is that there are always a myriad and meleeof artistic ideas and practices.I first started translating because I am an immigrant and I sawthings in some Swedish poets (and actually before that, in variousSwedish post-punk bands of the 80s) that I didn’t see in US poetry,and that influenced me a great deal, so I wanted my US friends tobe able to see where I was coming from. While at college, and feel-ing really shut-down by, on one hand, the “write what you know”quietist poetry of much contemporary US poetry (this was themid-1990s) and the high-modernist taste-rhetoric of experimentalpoetry, I came across young Swedish poet Aase Berg, whose poetrymixed Surrealism, b-movies, fairytales, sensationalistic imageryand a strange and beautiful use of the Swedish language to pro-duce really arresting, overwhelming poetry.

The key to finding a text to translate for me is that you have tobe drawn to it, you have to connect to it. I am not interested insome illusory idea of representing the true Swedish contemporarypoetry; not interested in translating someone because they are themost important or influential. Thus when Erika asked me to sug-gest poets to translate, I first asked Erika to send me some of herpoems, which she did. Her poems struck me as intensive, dramaticand dream-like. Perhaps if I hadn’t already done it, I would havesuggested she translate Berg! Instead I suggested she translate Ma-ria Margareta Österholm, whose book The Confessions of YoungF. tells a strange narrative of a woman who – like Virginia Woolf– walks into a lake and emerges on the other side, part zombie-girl,part visionary artist, with a hamster in her girlish purse. In partthe book can be read as an investigation of the trope of the deadyoung woman (so common in anything from modern day crimetelevision to Victorian love poetry); but it’s also a fun, young book.The difficulty in translating a poem like this – as with the Berg – isto account for the way Swedish depends on neologisms (new wordsformed by forging words together), such as “läppstiftröd” (“lipstickred”). Another difficulty is the surrealist imagery (braiding decom-position into her hair for example). And then there’s the experi-mental use of syntax, disjunction and line-breaks. I think Erika hasdone a formidable job with this text.

Benilda SantosANG LALAKING AHASmula sa luntiang kakapalan ng dahonsa dilim ng korona ng punong manganamaybay ang may-lalang sa mga sangaat ang pinakakatawan tinaluntonpababa sa himhingan ng mga ugatdoon nagsimulang maghunos ng balat

Benilda SantosTHE SNAKE-MANfrom the thick green leavesof the mango tree’s dark crownthe creature lurked along branchesslithered downto where the roots sleepand there started sheddingwhat he could no longer keepTranslated from the Tagalog by Maria De Leon

Maria De Leon TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONTruthfully, I was intimidated with the idea of translating from a dif-ferent language – especially translating from my language, Tagalog.What if my translations are nothing but garbage? What if my momwould disown me because I didn’t know what namaybay means?Obviously, I was under unwarrantedly stressed. Thankful, an angelin a form of a Rhino Senior Editor descended upon my subparpoem about a man that was a snake. With Angela Torres’s guid-ance, I felt myself grow as a poet, and I was indubitably lucky thatshe was my mentor.

Angela Narciso Torres MASTER TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONWorking with Maria De Leon on her translation from the Filipinoof “The Snake-Man” / “Ang Lalaking Ahas” was an enrichingexperience. Because translating poems involves so much more thanjust a literal transcription from one language to another, it reallylends itself to collaboration, and I was very pleased with the wayMaria used our exchanges to achieve the best possible translationof this poem that she was capable of producing. My initial goal inworking with Maria was making sure she had an accurate under-standing of the literal meaning of the poem. This meant not onlygiving her the dictionary meanings of the words in the poem thatwere particularly problematic, but also the subtle connotations ofeach possible synonym for it in English and how it worked withinthe context of the poem. Once I felt sure that we had reached ameeting of minds on the literal meaning, it was time to work onthe stylistic aspects of the poem. This is where the real work of thepoet comes in. Maria did very well trusting her own poetic instinctsto find the stylistic nuances that would transform the translationfrom a mere transcription to a poem in its own right. I was par-ticularly pleased with her translation of the title, “The Snake-Man”which lends a surreal quality to the poem and reminds me of Eliza-beth Bishop’s “The Man-Moth”—adding another layer of interpre-tation to the poem. The result is a beautifully concise yet evocativepoem that she can be very proud of. As her mentor, I am extremelyproud of the work she did as well!

‫‪Tuvya Ruebner‬‬‫קיתעה םשגה ךינפל‬‫רנביר היבוט תאמ‬‫קיתעה םשגה ךינפל‬‫בשוחו דמוע התא ‪,‬ךבגב םוחה‬‫םילימה תוטעמ המ‬‫וייחב ךירצ םדאש‬‫ימ לעו הלא לכ האורש ימ לע בשוחו‬‫םשגן ‪,‬תכלשבו ‪,‬חור וינפש‬‫‪.‬ןולחב הכמה הז‬

Tuvya RuebnerBEFORE YOU THE RAINbefore you, ancient rainwarms your backpause, think.words sparse.think of him,a mirror,the wind, the rain, the leavestap the glass.Translated from the Hebrew by Marti Rosen

Marti Rosen TRANSLATOR’S REFLECTIONLemme get this straight: I only speak English. After discoveringRicochet Review’s 3rd edition theme, Translation, I was beyondexcited. So excited that I envisioned silk-clothed cherubs chantinghallelujah, fluttering around pink and gold clouds as they parted,revealing mildly blinding, gleaming rays that highlighted the facesof each of my fantastically talented, mostly-all bilingual co-editors.And then there was me. My first thought was to translate a poemoriginally in French because I’m taking the class and adore Frenchculture. When I searched French poetry online, I found pages andpages of stanzas and poetry books of all sorts waiting to be reador re-published. That was just way too easy. I thought about myfamily, the Jewish half, and realized that I’ve never seen a Hebrewpoem (or a Hebrew poem translated into English). That’s what ourtheme is about — publishing poems in underrepresented languag-es. I then called upon my cousin in-law Joshua Hahn, a Hebrewspeaker, and he agreed to translate. Our search for Hebrew poetrywas irritating and tedious, for the few that we found were either tooold or had serious copyright infringements. The poem we chose —“Before You The Rain” by Tuevya Ruebner — fit the bill. Josh’stranslation was perfect, although exactly literal because he “doesn’thave a poetic bone in his body” (his words, not mine!). Using myprevious mentor, Angela Torres’ advice from last edition, I care-fully trimmed away the wordiness from the literal translation whilestaying true to its original form, a skill I have used exhaustively inpoetry editing and other forms of my writing.

This year is my last at Von Steuben and unfortunately my last yearon Ricochet Review’s editorial board. I know that in the future I’lllook back on my high school career and vaguely remember the stu-dents, my class schedule and that one terrible math project I failed,and Ricochet Review will stand out among those memories. Thankyou Mrs. Teref and Mr. Teref for breathing new life into me andrevolutionizing the way high school students look at poetry. I’llnever forget what you taught me about writing, editing, and mostimportantly life.

CONTRIBUTORSGabriel Aco is a freshman Scholar at Von Steuben. He is a self-taught artist who enjoys drawing cities and landscapes as he dreamsof becoming an architect or graphic artist. He is on the track andcross-country teams. Writing narratives and stories is a developinginterest and he hopes to continue to have his work published.Cynthia Aguilar loves to read and enjoys writing. She’s dedicated tothe things that she does and is proud of how her work turns out.Cynthia is a creative person who enjoys writing stories and poetry,drawing, and playing acoustic guitar.Lejla Alibašić is a junior at Von Steuben. She is from Bosnia. Sheenjoys playing sports such as swimming and track. Her favoritesubject in school is English and Science, and one day she hopes toget a career in the Science field. In her spare time, she enjoys read-ing, ice-skating, and spending time with friends.Erika Anderson is a sophomore at Von Steuben MSC. This isher second year being a part of Ricochet Review and she enjoysthe unique challenges and learning experiences that it presents.Not only does she love writing poetry, but she also enjoys playingsports, building robots, and baking.George Bacovia, the pen name of George Vasiliu (September 17,1881-May 22, 1957), was a Romanian symbolist poet. While heinitially belonged to the local Symbolist movement, his poetry cameto be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism and eventuallyestablished him in critical esteem alongside Tudor Arghezi, Lu-cian Blaga and Ion Barbu as one of the most important interwarRomanian poets.

Asim Bajramović is a Bosnian poet and songwriter. In 1995, hemoved from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Chicago where he nowwrites while trucking cross-country. He is the author of The Amu-let of Bosnia.Amina Bečirević was born in Chicago in 1999 after her family emi-grated from Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is now a sophomore atVon Steuben and is in the process of translating her uncle SaudinSado Bečirević’s war memoirs. Amina wants to pursue a career intranslation, a desire inspired by her Mandarin language study atVon.Saudin Sado Bečirević was born in Foca, Bosnia and Herzegovina.He attended a small village elementary school in his hometown andhigh school in Sarajevo. His senior year of high school, he foughtin the Bosnian War at the age of 18. After the war, a relative gothim a job in Libya. At 26, he moved to Africa where he settled intohis new life. He published two war memoirs, Bore oko ociju andNa putu u nepoznato. In 2008, he was diagnosed with melanomacancer and passed away on November 20, 2009.Aase Berg published her first book, With Deer, in 1997. Since thenshe has written five more books of poetry, including Liknöjd Flora,which won Aftonbladet’s prestigious literary prize for best bookof the year; one book of criticism, Uggla, which won the Lager-crantzen Prize for best book of criticism; and a young adult novel,People-Eating People from Märsta. In 2008, she was awarded theprestigious NC Kaserpreis in Germany. Other books translatedinto English include Remainland: Selected Poems of Aase Berg,Transfer Fat, and With Deer.

The pride of being fluent in one’s native tongue is something MariaDe Leon, a 17 year-old junior at Von Steuben, indulges in. How-ever, after doing this translations issue for Ricochet Review showedher that she doesn’t know everything, but she should take the effortto figure out some things. Maria is now dedicated to furthering herknowledge not just academically, but culturally as well. She wants toexplore all her options so she will be versed in all the opportunitiesthat will be open to her.Russ Elliot teaches Mandarin to curious, spontaneous teenagersat Von Steuben. He used to teach English but discovered a differ-ent kind of energy in the classroom when sharing his passion forChinese language. The Chinese subplot in his life started relativelylate when, on a whim in college, he decided to take a detour as anEnglish major and spend a semester studying in China. He is cur-rently pursuing a Master of Arts in Chinese Studies at ValparaisoUniversity while still teaching and fathering, stealing an occasionalmoment of sleep.Poet and translator Johannes Göransson emigrated with his familyfrom Skåne, Sweden to the United States at age 13. He earned a BAfrom the University of Minnesota, an MFA from the Iowa Writ-ers’ Workshop, and his PhD from the University of Georgia. He isthe author of several books, including Haute Surveillance (2013),Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate(2011), and Dear Ra (A Story in Flinches) (2008). He has translatedAase Berg’s Dark Matter (2012), Transfer Fat (2012), and Remain-land: Selected Poems of Aase Berg (2005) as well as Henry Par-land’s Ideals Clearance (2007).

Kirsten Guerrero, an a-dork-able girl, is not only pun-tastic butalso very sweet. She loves going on explorations and creating newthings, from using stickers and cardboard to construct dramaticscenes, to making intricate cosplays and even baking delectablegoods. But be warned, she isn’t like her caffeine dependent life-form friends. In other words, she should never be given coffee.Nora Klein is a 16 year old student at Amos Alonzo Stagg HighSchool. As a bicultural student with a love of travel, she enjoysemploying the French language in various creative ways in order tostrengthen her fluency and vocabulary. This is in the hopes that oneday, as a world traveler, she can speak her way through any regionwith ease.Carla Leclercq is 14 years old and a freshman at Amos AlonzoStagg High School. She is in French 3 Honors and really enjoys theclass. Carla lives near Chicago, Illinois. She heard about a translat-ing project with Ricochet Review and jumped at the opportunity.Marcus Mrdak is a freshman at Von Steuben whose hobbies in-clude talking a lot primarily in class and generating as much noiseas possible. He works after school at YOUmedia as “the guy onthe computer in the back.” He sometimes participates in humaninteractions.Liu Nian is a Chinese poet and essayist. He was born in HunanProvince and now lives in Beijing. In Beijing, he attended twocreative writing programs that focused on poetry. He has since wonnational poetry awards and published the poetry collection Faraway.

Krystle Oehlberg is a freshman at Von Steuben High School. Shefell in love with literature at a young age when she was first in-troduced to books. It started with comprehending simple picturebooks to getting lost in chapter books and different genres and se-ries. Pretty Little Liars is one of her favorite series of books alongwith The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Throughout the years she’salso become very fond of John Green’s writing because as a betterreader she’s found it easier to understand. On her free time, Krystlelikes to adventure around Chicago with her friends to places she’snever been. With her best friend Gigi, she loves to go taste foodfrom several different cultures in restaurants all over the city. Someof her hobbies include teaching herself to play the piano, learningto cook and playing sports such as volleyball and softball. Lastly,one of Krystle’s passions is working with children in grade school,after having that experience when she volunteered to work withDay Camp over the past summer. Maria Margareta Österholm was born in 1979 and is a doctoralcandidate in Comparative Literature with a gender focus at UppsalaUniversity. She is a founding publisher of Rose Larvae and DockAccident.Remi Oyeleye is a sophomore at Von Steuben with a deep love forwords and riveting texts. She has a wide range of favorite authors,including Poe, Voltaire, Maya Angelou, and Chimamanda NgoziAdiche. She is an enthusiastic individual who loves exchangingthoughts with others.

Anne Penders is a multimedia artist working with poetry, photogra-phy, and video. Her work, written in her native French, focuses onconflicting ideas such as order and disorder, proximity and distance,and their effect on our perceptions of home, politics, memories,and movement. Her extensive travel throughout Asia clearly influ-ences her work and ideas. Penders currently lives in Belgium andcontinues to explore art history, land art, and how we perceive land,home, and our ties to each.Ana Ristović is a Serbian poet who has published seven collectionsof poetry. Her most recent book is Meteoric Debris (2013). Shehas won many awards for her work both in Serbia and Germany.She was a featured reader in Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassusin 2012. She has read her poetry across Europe and Latin America.Her poem “Circling Zero” was chosen by Southbank Centre as oneof the greatest 50 love poems published in the last 50 years.“Marti, stay after class for a bit—I have an amazing idea to sharewith you!”—The words of Maja Teref, Ricochet Review’s FacultyAdvisor before introducing Ricochet Review one afternoon ofMarti Rosen’s first year of high school. Since joining the edito-rial board 3 years ago, Marti’s interest in poetry had sailed and shesoon found herself as Ricochet Review’s Poetry Editor. In previousyears, she was chosen to represent her school by reading her poetryat the Poetry Center of Chicago and was twice published in Handson Stanzas. Marti is an aspiring journalist, creative writer and poet,hoping to write and publish a book someday.

Tuvya Ruebner, a poet from Israel who writes in Hebrew, wasawarded the Israel Prize for Poetry in February 2008. He be-gan writing in German – his first language, and later switched toHebrew. He has published twelve books, edited five others andtranslated from German to Hebrew (Schlegel, Goethe, Kafka, andothers), and from Hebrew to German (Agnon, Carmi, Pagis).Benilda Santos is a film critic, an essayist and a poet. She is also aFilipino professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, and is cur-rently the head of the Filipino Department of the Loyola Schools.Santos is considered as one of the contemporary experts in Fili-pino language. She is known to have helped in the translation ofthe 1986 election primers from English to Filipino. Santos has alsoserved as director for Ateneo National Writers Workshop. Herworks have won in the National Book Awards and the Palancas.Aymann Shaikh is a freshman in Von Steuben, who originated fromDaniel Boone Elementary. He is known to get his work done andkeeps his eyes open for any opportunities academic or non aca-demic. One day going through his regular class schedule, he wasinformed of a service learning opportunity, he questioned somemore leading him to Ricochet Review. There he spent time translat-ing, reading, and writing poetry, favoring all aspects.Yusuf Shazad is an Urdu poet whose themes often deal with societyand human nature. He first wrote poetry as a hobby until he eventu-ally got published in an Urdu newspaper in India. Though he oftenwrites many forms of Urdu poetry, he most notably writes shers(couplets).