by Anna Gual | Translated by AKaiser
Clay (English)
Clay (Catalan)
The mystic isn’t always with me.
There are days when the presence of the real
crush the hands that should write
and the only way to find my bearings
is to move the mud that mantles the mind
and chastise the mind so it ceases to be inert,
to be obsessive, to be lonely;
that it stops conversing with the dead,
that it stops segregating syllables from the abyss,
that is stops confusing
a stone
with a word
and a word
with a sacred path.
Anna Gual is one of Catalunya’s most vital poetic voices. Her quests, and the singular ways she goes about and records them, draws in poets, readers, and critics alike. Anna’s work has been translated into French, Italian and Spanish, and is now translated into English by AKaiser. The collected and selected “Unnameable” is forthcoming 2025 with Zephyr Press. https://annagual.cat
AKaiser is the Pushcart Prize-nominated poet of glint (Milk & Cake Press) and translator of Catalan, French & Spanish. More recent work appears in Allium, Four Way Review, MPT and POETRY. AK was awarded an NEA Translation Fellowship for the English translation of the work of Catalan poet Anna Gual. Unnameable is forthcoming 2025 with Zephyr Press. https://akaiser.org