Editor's Note

When we fall asleep, where do we go? Why, of course, to a #midnightgarden, ours alone to tend. We all have an interior plot of our own—the “context” (Juan Arabia) that a poet demands. Dark and enclosed but with tendrils that threaten to obtrude, the garden-by-night is an apt metaphor for inner life. Arabia’s is replete with “bitter flowers,” Chen Yuhong’s “a tanka of morning dew,” Leeladhar Jagoori’s “the scent of freshly dug-up earth”; as Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir writes in Fire Coral, part of our FarLit-sponsored Feature on Literature from the Faroe Islands: “if you hold my skull / up to your ear / you can hear the whispering sea.” This “whispering sea”—the subject of so many works in this spotlight—might be the darkest, vastest garden of all. Billowing “fronds of oarweed” and underwater forests of “breastfeeding trees” line its floor. The poets and writers of the Faroes tend this garden in various ways. Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs picks a “slimy / plastic bag / out of a green tidal pool;” Rannvá Holm Mortensen charts its “milkdeeps,” trawled by fishing ships that find novel species in their nets. In much the same way, our latest issue teems with exciting discoveries from 32 countries, including apocalyptic drama from Honduras, interviews with Andrey Kurkov and Diamela Eltit, fiction by Michela Murgia and Khrystia Vengryniuk, new translations of Alfred Döblin and Ludovico Ariosto—specifically, of his Orlando Furioso, the bestselling book of the sixteenth century. Ahead of the 60th Venice Biennale opening this weekend, we are proud to unveil our own international showcase—illustrated with elan by Korean guest artist Joon Yoon—still the most ambitious of any literary periodical.

Among the highlights in this edition is visual artist Katie Holten—herself a veteran of the Venice Biennale—who returns to our pages to discuss her rustling, arresting Language of Trees, a response to ecological catastrophe. Michelle Chan Schmidt reviews a similar attempt to capture new language, crisis language, when extremes brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine called for A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War. Interviewing young Somali refugees for a dictionary entry, “Partire” or leave, Somali-Italian writer Ubah Cristina Ali Farah discovers how disasters—in this case, civil war and genocide—“reveal the limit of language.” In Fiction, a “great flood” forms the backdrop of Khrystia Vengryniuk’s mordantly funny but ultimately heartbreaking story about two star-crossed lovers. By contrast, LGBTQ+ rights activist Michela Murgia’s relatively uneventful piece centers a soon-to-be empty nester and the solution to her ennui that she tucks away in her wardrobe: a life-sized cutout of BTS boyband member Park Jimin. (For a more unbridled riff on desire, step into Night Garden by Beinir Bergsson, the first queer poet writing in the language of the Faroe Islands.) Also making a cameo from the world of pop culture in this issue’s Brave New World Literature entry are beloved Hungarian musicians Géza Bereményi and Tamás Cseh, whose intentionally ambiguous lyrics are beautifully rendered into English by Diana Senechal in a process she unforgettably describes as “riding a horse forwards and backwards at once” (pair with Adonis’s essay, “Ambiguity,” from our Summer 2011 issue).

Just this past week, the Financial Times reported that “rising nationalism and falling funding is reshaping the Venice Biennale,” often described as the Olympics for the art world. Not for nothing has literature in translation also been compared to the Olympics: “pay-for-play, and as a general rule, who spends the most wins.” Although Asymptote has taken as its mission to, in Kazuo Ishiguro’s words, “widen our common literary world to include many more voices from beyond our comfort zones of the elite first-world cultures,” we find ourselves running up against the same constraints that keep the art world from fully realizing its potential (as a matter of fact, just carrying on remains a challenge because we are incorporated outside of the US and Europe, where most of literary arts funding lies). So, in addition to following us on Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, via our newsletter, and in our daily blog, we hope you’ll also stand with us as we continue to seek out the best new writing from around the world. Consider sponsoring a country-themed Special Feature, taking out a publicity package, joining our Book Club, submitting your own work, or volunteering behind the scenes (marketing managers and business developers are especially welcome to apply). Most of all, help us grow this #midnightgarden as a sustaining or masthead member. Together, we can keep it alive.

—Lee Yew Leong, Editor-in-Chief



Editorial Team for Issue April 2024

Editor-in-Chief: Lee Yew Leong (Thailand/Singapore)

Assistant Managing Editors: Hilary Ilkay (Canada), Daljinder Johal (UK), Marina Dora Martino (Italy), Janet Phillips (UK/Australia), Kathryn Raver (France/USA), Alex Tan (Singapore), and Sarah Wang (Canada)

Section Editors:
Lee Yew Leong (Thailand/Singapore)
Caridad Svich (USA/UK)
Ian Ross Singleton (USA)
Heather Green (USA)
Danielle Pieratti (USA)
Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg (USA)

Assistant Editors: M.L. Martin (Canada), Maya Nguen (USA), Michelle Chan Schmidt (Ireland), Rachel Landau (USA), Terézia Klasová (Czech Republic), Catherine Xin Xin Yu (Canada/Italy) Willem Marx (Italy/USA), Chiara Gilberti (Germany/Italy), Fatima Jafar (USA), Tiffany Troy (USA), Vuslat Demirkoparan (USA), and Lin Chia-Wei (Taiwan) 

Assistant Interview Editors: Sebastián Sánchez-Schilling and Sarah Gear

Contributing Editors: Ellen Elias-Bursac (USA), Aamer Hussein (UK), Sim Yee Chiang (Singapore), Dylan Suher (USA), and Adrian West (USA)

Art Director: Lee Yew Leong (Thailand/Singapore)

Editor-at-large, Bulgaria: Andriana Hamas
Editor-at-large, China: Jiaoyang Li
Editor-at-large, Croatia: Kristina Gadze
Editor-at-large, Greece: Christina Chatzitheodorou
Editors-at-large, Guatemala: José García Escobar, Rubén Lopéz, and Miranda Mazariegos
Editor-at-large, Hong Kong: Charlie Ng Chak-Kwan
Editors-at-large, India: Areeb Ahmad and Zohra Salih
Editor-at-large, Kenya: Wambua Muindi
Editor-at-large, North Macedonia: Sofija Popovska
Editors-at-large, Mexico: René Esaú Sánchez and Alan Mendoza Sosa
Editor-at-large, Palestine: Carol Khoury
Editor-at-large, Philippines: Alton Melvar M. Dapanas
Editor-at-large, Romania and Moldova: MARGENTO
Editor-at-Large, Spain: Marina García Pardavilla
Editor-at-large, Sweden: Eva Wissting
Editor-at-large, Uzbekistan: Filip Noubel
Editor-at-large, Vietnamese Diaspora: Thuy Dinh


Masthead for Issue April 2024

Fiction, Brave New World Literature Feature, and Interview: Lee Yew Leong
Poetry: Danielle Pieratti
Nonfiction: Ian Ross Singleton
Drama: Caridad Svich
Visual: Heather Green
Criticism: Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg
Special Feature on Literature from the Faroe Islands: Lee Yew Leong
Illustrations and Cover: Joon Yoon

Assistant Managing Editor (supervising issue production): Janet Phillips

Assistant Managing Editors (supervising Assistant Editors): Alex Tan and Marina Dora Martino

Assistant Managing Editors (supervising Editors-at-Large): Daljinder Johal and Kathryn Raver

Assistant Managing Editor (overseeing blog production): Hilary Ilkay

Assistant Managing Editor (HR): Sarah Wang

Chief Executive Assistant: Rachel Farmer

Senior Executive Assistants: Julie Shi, Iona Tait, and Chinmay Rastogi

Executive Assistants: Meenakshi Ajit, Haeri Lee, and Charlotte Chadwick

Blog Editors: Xiao Yue Shan, Bella Creel, and Meghan Racklin

Art Director: Lee Yew Leong

Guest Artist Liaison: Berny Tan

Senior Copy Editors: Mia Manns, Janet Phillips, Rachel Stanyon, and Maggie Wang

Copy Editors: Sophie Eliza Benbelaid, Bella Bosworth, Jennifer Busch, Willem Marx, Matilde Ribeiro, Mia Ruf, Ellen Sprague, Iona Tait, Josh Todarello, and Urooj

Technical Manager: József Szabó

Director of Outreach: Georgina Fooks

Podcast Editor: Vincent Hostak

English Social Media: Ruwa Alhayek, Livia Djelani, Hannah Landau, Savannah Munoz, and Kate Rudek

French Social Media: Filip Noubel

Spanish Social Media: Sergio Serrano

Graphic Designer: Michael Laungjessadakun

Digital Editors: Matthew Redman and Julia Preston

Marketing Managers: Kate Lofthouse and Samantha Seifert 

Director, Educational Arm: Sarah Nasar

Educational Arm Assistants: Mary Hillis, Marissa Lydon, and Anna Rumsby

Book Club Manager: Carol Khoury

Asymptote would like to acknowledge the support of



FarLit, Jóhanna H. Wolles, Genevieve Lebrun-Taugourdeau, Jonathan Drummond, and Maya Osborne.

For their generous donations this past quarter, our heartfelt thanks go too to Christina Kramer, Claire Hegarty, Daniel Hahn, Elizabeth Raible, Jeffrey Boyle, Katarzyna Bartoszynska, Lynn O'Neal, Marjolijn de Jager, Mark Cohen, Martin Ingebrigtsen, Matthew Mazowita, Mireille Pierre-louis, Monty Reid, Philip Feinsilver, Thomas Carroll, and Velina Manolova.

In addition, we’re thrilled to welcome new sustaining member James Ellis.

Back

Fiction

Alfred Döblin, The Slaughter! Oh, the Slaughter!

Translated from the German by Joachim Redner

That’s what it’s like! Left, right, soldiers stumble forward as they run.

Gwenaëlle Aubry, from Elisa Folly

Translated from the French by Wendeline A. Hardenberg

“Massacre in Paris” ran the tabloid headlines.

Martín Kohan, Wide Awake

Translated from the Spanish by Tim Benjamin

Osvaldo waits, under the open sky, as night deepens.

Michela Murgia, Animated Cardboard

Translated from the Italian by Taylor Yoonji Kang

Today, the turn of the keys didn’t make me sad.

Khrystia Vengryniuk, Flood

Translated from the Ukrainian by Dmytro Kyyan and Kate Tsurkan

My love increasingly resembled an illness.

Poetry

Chen Yuhong, Two Poems

Translated from the Chinese by George O'Connell and Diana Shi

Now that it’s autumn
let me redefine this world.

Leeladhar Jagoori, from What of the Earth Was Saved

Translated from the Hindi by Matt Reeck

the stairs of today’s music
are covered with tomorrow’s leaves

marwin vos, from wild death

Translated from the Dutch by Frances Welling and Nguyễn Thị Mai

if you were to describe it then only by connecting it to something else a letter is distance yet also an intimate relation

Jang Okgwan, Three Poems

Translated from the Korean by Susan K

What’s poorer than a bird’s toes?

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç, from prinzenbad

Translated from the German by Özgecan Kesici

together it’s easier to sit
cheekily on the minaret.

Juan Arabia, Four Poems

Translated from the Spanish by Patricio Ferrari

Tonight’s clouds blur demons in the sky

Alara Adilow, from Myths and Traffic Lights

Translated from the Dutch by Shimanto Robin Reza

Twelve balloons drift across the sky like darkness’ young

Jazra Khaleed, from The Light that Burns Us

Translated from the Greek by Viktoras Iliopoulos

he never thought to lift the stone,
he never thought to throw the stone.

Yuri Andrukhovych, Four Poems

Translated from the Ukrainian by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin

Rooks scream from bleak trees.
I fell from my horse and lost the tournament.

Ludovico Ariosto, from Orlando Furioso

Translated from the Italian by Steven Monte

My lady, who will fly to paradise
to fetch me the wits I’ve lost here below?

Criticism

Ukrainian Playwrights, A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: 20 Short Works by Ukrainian Playwrights

Translated from the Ukrainian and Russian by John Freedman, Natalia Bratus, John Farndon, and Evgenia Kovryga

A review by Michelle Chan Schmidt

To read them is to scratch a star into the global constellation of collective action sustaining the new meanings of Ukraine.

Pablo d'Ors, The Friend of the Desert

A review by Harry Readhead

The central question posed by The Friend of the Desert is this: What does it mean to live?

Victor Heringer, The Love of Singular Men

A review by Celine Nguyen

Love remains the great enigmatic mystery of our lives.

Mónica Ojeda, Jawbone

A review by María del Pilar Cuairán Chavarría

Jawbone exposes what lies behind the undecipherable boldness and awkwardness of teenage girls.

Lee Sumyeong, Just Like

Translated from the Korean by Colin Leemarshall

An essay by the translator

I needed to be shown poetry that was just like itself—and thus, by extension, unlike itself.

Nonfiction

Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, from Hill Station

Translated from the Urdu by Matt Reeck

The rise-and-fall of the hilly roads was a new experience for Professor. “My god!” he said in his inimitable way, “this road is like an EKG of a heart attack!”

Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, Three Short Pieces

Translated from the Italian by Brandon Michael Cleverly Breen

Is language able to reconstruct a word split by violence?

Paolo Nori, from We Will Take Our Revenge

Translated from the Italian by Tim Cummins

There was a time when I was convinced I lived in a country where we had more freedom than, say, people in countries under the Warsaw Pact.

Aigerim Tazhi, Following the Breath of the Earth

Translated from the Russian by Aigerim Tazhi

To me, nature means God, freedom, infinity.

Drama

Josep M. Miró Coromina, from The Nicest Body Ever Seen Around These Parts

Translated from the Catalan by Sharon G. Feldman

Death is an ill-timed visitor.

Luis Emilio Cerna Mazier, Facing the End of the World

Translated from the Spanish by Larisa Muñoz Mejía

Suddenly, the air past the window is tempting.

Visual

Alberto Chimal, Apparitions: Scary Story and Literature of the Imagination

For me, inventing a new classification is an attempt to break out of the closed compartments of genres.

Katie Holten, Rewilding: Katie Holten and The Language of Trees

Where is our ecological compassion?

Brave New World Literature

Diana Senechal, A Syllable That Turns into the World

Perhaps there are Lee Van Cleefs among us: people who get dragged down for their excellence, who prevail in some way, but also get destroyed.

Literature from the Faroe Islands

Kim Simonsen, from What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium

Translated from the Faroese by Randi Ward

I embrace my insignificant role in everything.

Rannvá Holm Mortensen, from Spring Milk

Translated from the Faroese by Matthew Landrum and Rakul í Gerðinum

the milkdeeps are dangerous tonight

Jóanes Nielsen, Six Poems

Translated from the Faroese by Matthew Landrum, Tóta Árnadóttir, and Paula Gaard

It’s not a nightmare anymore
The earth really is burning

Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir, from Fire Coral

Translated from the Faroese by Matthew Landrum and Luciano Dutra

drowning
is the calmest of all deaths
the sea told me

Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs, from The Karma God

Translated from the Faroese by Matthew Landrum and Rakul í Gerðinum

After waking
I walk to the edge of the world

Beinir Bergsson, from The Night Garden

Translated from the Faroese by Marita Thomsen

In the dark you exist only
in the vibrations

Guðrið Poulsen, from one straight line one curved

Translated from the Faroese by Randi Ward

that straight line in the landscape
makes me think about mirror images

William Heinesen, A Cure For Evil Spirits

Translated from the Danish by D. E. Hurford

To a child, the world reveals itself in the form of a monstrous ruler of incomprehensible things.

Interview

An Interview with Diamela Eltit

Translated from the Spanish by Fionn Petch

When I start on a novel I enter a space that starts to take shape beyond me; in a sense the novel is autonomous, it exceeds me.

An Interview with Andrey Kurkov

I think it is probably true that representatives of Ukrainian culture, who are not actually fighting at the front line, should be using their skills to spread the word about what is happening.