Caroline Lemak Brickman
Articles by Caroline Lemak Brickman:
ghazal: a version of “Insomnia. Homer”
in Issue 93 | With(out) Child (Dec 2018)"insomnia, homer, canvas tight / half this list these ships this night" A rhymed version of a Mandelstam poem.
Eurydice to Orpheus (“not in the mood”)
in Issue 91 | Horror & Comedy (Oct 2018)it was paid for – all the roses of blood paid / for this loose dress / of immortality…
softer than a soft sign
in Issue 86 | Self-Modification (May 2018)The husband loves the chair. / The American is a professor. / A brother is not an animal. / A name is a burden. / A city is often a friend. / Your son is not a person?
Magdalene (putting the body given her to use)
in Issue 53 | Noise (Jun 2015)you be my other blood - how bright / your pelt! - like the froth on my lips and the scum / after sinter - a hide tanned - I was barefoot, and you shod me - I was erect, and you prostrate - myrrh-bearer!
History of Catullus: A Translation
in Issue 45 | Vices and Devices (Oct 2014)he doesn't care about the fate of local arts and letters / he's got a headache like a water beetle - do they fuck purely out of gratitude - the truth doesn't bother him any more - They play! They kiss! / He wakes up sobbing! - catullus, like kafka, enters the archives - he what, can't go without fucking? - here there's a break in the tape recording
The Covers Record
in Issue 43 | Bar (Aug 2014)she couldn't take it from Jagger - as though handsome men could be blessed then had - do these lines startle the listener unfamiliar with hell - ugh, another man's song - paved with intentions and already a dead end - the word bar is so beautiful - there are interesting covers that don't belong to the bar - « bedcovers » ask, « am I the same or different? »
Vigil: for Paul Celan
in Issue 34 | Bait and Switch (Nov 2013)Insomnia - I read, I did not get far - the catalogue of ships - now and again - deepest into the strange - froth of god - Lo - black and eloquent
The Merry and Merciless Series: Versions of “You”
in Issue 31 | Strategies of Togetherness (Aug 2013)hoping that a less literal translation would be more faithful - i’ve fallen in love with you tirelessly - hot as hell and careful - has anyone ever wanted so much? - glimpses of early quicksilver & storm - waxing while i wax glorious - i swore i wouldn’t leave a trail of blood - k i know what you feel like from the inside too
new year: a translation
in Issue 26 | Good Sex (Mar 2013)« who, in contrast to God, has absolute pitch » - Galilee wedding water become New Year’s Eve champagne - language to soar & crash - anything but Judas - did it tear, did you bear, did it burst - pre-Babelian - Zeus-Born/Castor ripped - instead of champagne bubbles / I’ll take these wads of cotton into my mouth - look, I won’t go into detail - refrain, refrain - thunder? it’s not a widow’s pretension - am I right, Rainer, God’s a growing - just write me beforehand
Reading in Good Faith
in Issue 20 | Difference (Sep 2012)fidelity, faith - extragrammatical links - religious veneration, erotic love, and translation - the geometry of the poem - an anxious way to honor the original - Nabokov’s own system of transliteration - the concerns of a translator