Spring 2024

Editor's Note

We abide at present our peculiar circumstances, each in our way. With new work from 31 countries, Asymptote’s Summer 2020 edition reflects “This Strange Stillness”—hesitant, expectant, ominous, tragic. Alluding to both the ongoing pandemic and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, our excerpt from Gonçalo M. Tavares’s Plague Diary underscores the exceptional timeliness of one of our most unified issues ever. Alongside Christian Raimo’s bleak look at Italy during the financial crisis, a review of speculative fiction by Hong Konger Ysabelle Cheung against the backdrop of increasing Chinese encroachment, and the all-too-modern invasion of technology in Mohamed Makhzangi’s “Water Buffaloes,” past work by founders of surrealism André Breton and Philippe Soupault and our interview with enfant terrible of French literature Frédéric Beigbeder—where he discusses lockdown, life extension, and the xenophobia of some English readers—seem to resonate even more deeply with our historical moment.

This issue’s Special Feature showcases the humble vignette—i.e., compact serial work rendered poetically—from traditional shorts like those contributed by gifted Brazilian storyteller Cidinha da Silva to more metafictional offerings such as Macedonian author Sanja Mihajlovik-Kostadinovska’s brilliant “(In)finite Models of the Short Story” and up-and-coming Chinese writer Shuang Xuetao’s impressionistic “White Bird.” Throughout, anxiety lurks beneath the surface of jeweled prose accompanied by UK-based guest artist Laura Blight’s thrilling photography. In Russian poet Marianna Geide’s “People and Other Beings,” sinister predators are “waiting . . . always at the ready.” In acclaimed short story writer Tripura’s “Waiting for Bhagavantam”—marking our first piece from the Telugu—the frustration of our stood-up narrator seeps into his worldview like a contagion: “Across from me, a house that looked like pneumonia-given-form.” Everywhere, “a colossal virus whispers intimately in your ear,” writes Misty School poet Yang Lian.

Disease and endless waiting in confinement can exacerbate our distress at the state of the world. At such times, we relish especially the kind of celebratory transgression and liberation evoked in the irresistible poetry of Lolita Agamalova or Robert Rybicki, but we also share visual artist Rachel Blau Duplessis’s “unspeakable rage” about the course of the twenty-first century. Antonio Romani discusses Antonio Scurati’s novelistic depiction of Mussolini and Italian fascism, an all-too-timely subject for those living with today’s populist regimes. Journalist Tomáš Forró’s report on the 2014 conflict in Ukraine strikes a similar note of shame and fear regarding the State. Finally, in Hugo Carrillo’s Guatemalan drama, The Heart of the Scarecrow, a circus clown moonlights as a revolutionary, distributing anti-government tracts. Here as in our own reality, the police appears as an oppressive force, always on the verge of abusing its power.

Yet in spite of political upheaval and a palpable desire for change, something immobile in the moment lingers and persists. Alberto Caeiro, one of Fernando Pessoa’s most vivid and important heteronyms, describes this feeling as “a day when all day the thunder threatens / But still hasn’t arrived by nightfall . . .” Will the thunder break at last? One way or the other, art will bear witness, and Asymptote with it. You can help us remain vigilant in the face of history by joining our team (deadline: 27 July), by submitting work to our regular sections or to our Dutch Fiction Feature (deadline: 24 August), by subscribing to our Book Club (now open to readers all around the globe), by making a one-time tax-deductible donation (for those of you in our US), and, most of all, by becoming a sustaining or masthead member from as little as USD5 a month. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter, or at our daily blog; don't forget to sign up for our free Fortnightly Airmails if you haven’t already. However you do it, it's more important than ever that we stay connected across the globe. Thank you for reading!

—Lee Yew Leong, Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Team for Issue July 2020

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

Assistant Managing Editors: Daljinder Johal (UK/India) and Josefina Massot (Argentina)

Section Editors:
Lee Yew Leong (Taiwan/Singapore)
Garrett Phelps (USA)
Varun Nayar (India)
Caridad Svich (USA)
Ah-reum Han (USA/South Korea)
Sam Carter (USA)
Eva Heisler (USA)
Sarah Timmer Harvey (USA/Netherlands)

Editor of Special Feature on Vignettes: Lee Yew Leong (Taiwan/Singapore)

Assistant Editors: Edwin Alanís-García (USA), Alyea Canada (USA), (Canada), Whitney DeVos (Mexico/USA), Helena Fornells (UK), Barbara Halla (France), Marina Martino (UK), Maya Nguen (USA), Erik Noonan (USA), Andreea Scridon (UK/Romania), Lindsay Semel (Portugal/USA), P. T. Smith (USA), Jay G. Ying (UK), and Lin Chia-wei (Taiwan)

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

Translation Tuesdays Editor: Edwin Alanís-García (USA)

Art Director: Lee Yew Leong (Taiwan/Singapore)

Assistant Director, Educational Arm: Kent Kosack (USA)

Editors-at-large, Argentina: Allison Braden and Sarah Moses
Editor-at-large, Brazil: Daniel Persia
Editor-at-large, El Salvador: Nestor Gomez
Editor-at-large, Guatemala: José García
Editors-at-large, Hong Kong: Jacqueline Leung and Charlie Ng Chak-Kwan
Editor-at-large, Iran: Poupeh Missaghi
Editor-at-large, Mexico: Andrew Adair
Editor-at-large, Morocco: Hodna Nuernberg
Editor-at-large, Peru: Paloma Reaño
Editor-at-large, Romania and Moldova: MARGENTO
Editor-at-large, Slovakia: Julia Sherwood
Editor-at-large, Taiwan: Vivian Chih
Editor-at-large, Uzbekistan: Filip Noubel
Editor-at-large, Vietnam: Quyen Nguyen

Masthead for Issue July 2020

Fiction: Lee Yew Leong
Poetry: Garrett Phelps
Nonfiction: Varun Nayar
Drama: Caridad Svich
Criticism: Sam Carter
WoW: Ah-reum Han
Special Feature "Vignettes": Lee Yew Leong
Visual: Eva Heisler
Interviews: Sarah Timmer Harvey
Illustrations and Cover: Laura Blight

Assistant Managing Editor (supervising Assistant Editors): Josefina Massot

Assistant Managing Editor (supervising Editors-at-Large): Daljinder Johal

Communications Director: Samuel Kahler

Director of Outreach: Alessandro Mondelli

Chief Executive Assistant: Samuel Miller

Senior Executive Assistant: Bernice Seow

Executive Assistant: Austyn Wohlers

Blog Editors: Xiao Yue Shan and Sarah Moore

Translation Tuesdays Editor: Edwin Alanís-García (USA)

Newsletter Editor: Rita Horanyi

Guest Artist Liaison: Berny Tan

Senior Copy Editors: Devarati Chakrabarti and Angela Glindemann

Copy Editors: Anna Aresi, Andrea Blatz, Allison Braden, Bella Bosworth, Whitney DeVos, Rose Green, Barbara Halla, Sophie Hoffman, and George MacBeth

Technical Manager: József Szabó

English Social Media: Scarlett Castillo, Georgina Fooks, Sarah Panfil, and Isabelle Rew

Spanish Social Media: Sergio Serrano

French Social Media: Filip Noubel

Chinese Social Media: Jiaoyang Li and Jessica Wang

Communications Managers: Alexander Dickow and Georgina Fooks

Assistant Director, Educational Arm: Kent Kosack

Educational Arm Assistants: Kasia Bartoszyńska, Lucchini Clémence, Mary Hillis, Clare Spaulding, and Ian Thompson

For their generous donations, our heartfelt thanks go too to Alexander Dickow, Anna Aresi, Cobina Gillitt, Daniel Hahn, Deewang Bhamidipati, Enrico Cioni, Jeffrey Boyle, Joseph Hutchison, Katarzyna Bartoszynska, Mallory Truckenmiller, Mark Cohen, Martin Ingebrigtsen, Martin Orwin, Matthew Mazowita, Monty Reid, Nancy Relaford, Nhi Ta Huong, MARGENTO, Ruth Diver, Siobhan Mei, Ulf Jacobsen, Velina Manolova, William Cadwallader, and Xiangxiu Meng.

This past quarter, we welcomed new masthead member Ian Chung, new sustaining member Mildred Santiago Nicotera, and new Book Club subscribers Maria Valdes-Perez, Lorna Amor, Kristina Lalas, Robert Gehret, Ludmila Mikhailova, Rosie Arscott, Giovanna Zivny, Joan Dowgin, Marcelene Isaacson, Cindy Jimenez, Rodney Brazil, Jane Miller, Ben Moon-Black, Enrico Cioni, Francesca Spedalieri, Aiman Haddad, Anne Fisher, Ana Lucia Hincapie, Alyssa Bowie, and Suzanne Carter. Thank you all for your support!

Back

Fiction

Christian Raimo, No More Cult of the Dead for Twentieth-Century Italy

Translated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore

Could the dead possibly show us the way?

Ion D. Sîrbu, The Cat

Translated from the Romanian by Andreea Iulia Scridon

He felt in his heart the heavy thump of that body—otherwise soft and elastic—falling still like a rock.

Daniela Hodrová, from Puppets (Living Pictures)

Translated from the Czech by Elena Sokol and Véronique Firkusny

Wing is skipping very fast, almost floating, and the skipping rope forms an ellipse around his pudgy body.

Saša Ilić, from The Dog and the Double Bass

Translated from the Serbian by Ellen Elias-Bursać

The present is a time in which you don’t live.

Enrique Serpa, from Contraband

Translated from the Spanish by Andrew Feldman

During my moments of torment and pain, only two roads presented themselves to me: the sea or suicide.

Poetry

Yu Jian, Three Poems on the Pandemic

Translated from the Chinese by Shuyu Guo

everyone dies there’s no need to rush

Lolita Agamalova, Dilige, et quod vis fac

Translated from the Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky and Ainsley Morse

everything that has ever been spoken in truth, this is ours
slit the throats of the rest

Anonymous Poets of Southeastern Iran, Lickos: Syllabic Poetry of the Oasis

Translated from the Persian and Roudbari by Mahdi Ganjavi, Amin Fatemi, and Mansour Alimoradi

The scorching sun is killing me
Only the shadow of your body
Can save me

André Breton and Philippe Soupault, from The Magnetic Fields

Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell

From what do mutual attractions stem? There are some jealousies more touching than others.

Ribka Sibhatu, from Aulò

Translated from the Italian and Amharic by André Naffis-Sahely and Ribka Sibhatu

Lacking the wings
of an eagle,
resigned, she admires
the distant moon

Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein, Five Poems

Translated from the Arabic by Suneela Mubayi and Rana Issa

I’m a wild flower
Crushed beneath a tank
Won’t you pluck me before I die?

Bruna Beber, Four Poems

Translated from the Portuguese by Sarah Rebecca Kersley

I don’t feel short of breath
a great friend is the wind

Robert Rybicki, from The Squatters' Gift

Translated from the Polish by Mark Tardi

let every word be a revelation!
let it be beautiful like shitting under a tree

Yang Lian, Dead Sea

Translated from the Chinese by Brian Holton

a colossal virus whispers intimately in your ear

Balam Rodrigo, from Central American Book of the Dead

Translated from the Spanish by Dan Bellm

I know that God plays futbol up in heaven,
but I don’t want to be on his team just yet.

Alberto Caeiro, from The Keeper of Sheep

Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari

When the lightning made the air tremble
And everything shook
Like a mighty head saying No

Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou, Three Poems

Translated from the Persian by Siavash Saadlou

It is a day in the depths of Iran, a day
in the depths of the world

Criticism

Shokoofeh Azar, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

Translated from the Farsi by Anonymous

A review by Apala Bhowmick

In Iran, reading and writing are steeped in peril and never to be indulged in lightly.

Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov, Soviet Texts

Translated from the Russian by Simon Schuchat and Ainsley Morse

A review by Dan Shurley

Prigov’s big-hearted, politically-engaged conceptualism continues to inspire a new generation of artists confronting abuses of power in Russia.

Andrzej Tichy, Wretchedness

Translated from the Swedish by Nichola Smalley

A review by Lindsay Semel

How can we ethically produce or consume art about human suffering?

Various Authors, That We May Live

Translated from the Chinese by Various Translators

A review by Ysabelle Cheung

Although billed as a collection of “speculative Chinese fiction,” That We May Live at its core references global philosophical quandaries and anxieties.

Nonfiction

Gonçalo M. Tavares, Plague Diary

Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

In 2014, the Pope: “time is greater than space.”

Judith Schalansky, from An Inventory of Losses

Translated from the German by Jackie Smith

I want to know what happens to the dead and buried.

Koko Hubara, Kaddish for a Born Child

Translated from the Finnish by D. E. Hurford

People are always telling us Brown children born in the 1980s that we’re trailblazers and bridge-builders. We’re not, though.

Pedro Lemebel, Crazy Desire

Translated from the Spanish by Montana Ray

They were the party’s dead, bags of skin wrung out by the spasms of climax.

Tomáš Forró, Disenchantment in Dirty Snow

Translated from the Slovak by Magdalena Mullek

If I don’t make it to the other side in time, I could be trapped for the night in no man’s land.

Drama

Hugo Carrillo, The Heart of the Scarecrow

Translated from the Spanish by María Escolán

Death has been chasing me all my life. When I was a child it was my play mate because I had no one else to play with.

Sophocles, Electra, Two Stasimons

Translated from the Ancient Greek by Fortunato Salazar

posing as children mutely cross at contrarian parents we smash and grab transparent partitions

Visual

Rachel Blau DuPlessis, On Portals, Poems, and Collage

Charbel-joseph H. Boutros, Charged Invisibility

Special Feature

Antonio Romani on Antonio Scurati

Story-makers must devise fresh ways of making the past and the future genuinely intriguing—capable of prompting unexpected surprise and curiosity.

Donald Lopez on Gendun Chopel

The naked truth, terrifying to behold, is not to be covered with robes of self-deception. This is the first vow of the scholar.

Interview

An Interview with Frédéric Beigbeder

I don’t think English literature is xenophobic, but English readers are.