Climate
From the Editors
Dear readers,
We are the editors of this issue of Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, CLIMATE. We put out the call, reviewed the submissions, and worked with the translators to edit and present these pieces, as has always been our process. The pieces are the work of their authors and translators. This letter, however, is not meant to speak on behalf of them. We speak instead to our own experiences of putting it together.
Exchanges’ themes are typically more abstract than CLIMATE, but sometimes, the many threads between an abstraction and its interpretations can get tangled. We were seeking a theme more explicit in scope, more grounded in our own lived realities. And while we encouraged a variety of interpretations of CLIMATE–cultural, political, economic; chilly climates, heightened climates, positive climates; climates of fear, climates of suspicion–the planet’s climate and its well-documented course towards uninhabitability is the most common interpretation. It’s hard to ignore what we can see and feel around us. The effects of climate change are felt on every inch of this globe, but they are not everywhere the same.
We celebrate these authors and translators who see the value in acknowledging and exploring the realities of end-times.
Hitomi Kanehara’s “Unsocial Distance,” translated by Yuki Tejima, explores the effects of the pandemic on the already strained cultural climate of Japan, as we delve into an intimate story of two young adults that share a traumatic experience.
Dmitry Bobyshev’s poem, “In the Land of the Lotus Eaters,” captures “the strangeness and promise of American culture, geography, and modernity,” as translators Emma George and Kathleen Mitchell-Fox write in their translators’ note.
In Georg Amsel’s poems translated by Lake Angela, we are invited into the icy incantations of resistance and suffering, uttered in the decaying earth we share with so many living beings.
Lea Schneider’s “Being Prey. An Essay in Twenty-one Stanzas” explores similar themes of harmony and discord with other creatures. As the translator Bradley Schmidt comments, the piece “zooms out slightly from the question of climate (change) and posits a deeper connection between all creatures, and humans capable of being both predator and prey.”
Kim Jensen and Judith Santopietro’s translation of Roxana Crisólogo’s poems depict literal and metaphorical checkpoints of migration, asking the reader to witness displacement caused by untenable environments of “poverty, violence, and climate catastrophe.”
Peter Burzyński’s translations of Grzegorz Wróblewski bring out the poet’s sardonic humor, setting dialogues about late-stage capitalism and Covid-19 within shimmering descriptions of megalithic forests and chrysalises forming.
Stefani J. Alvarez-Brûggmann writes about her barrio community forming barricades to try to challenge the deforestation of Cagayan de Oro, working against government corruption and economic incentives. Translator Alton Melvar M. Dapanas translates from two languages at once with poise and intention, and in their translator’s note takes readers through a personal taxonomy of Filipino nonfiction genres–critiquing the Westernizing impulse to elide historical and discursive distinctions.
Daniel Carden Nemo translates the censor-proof political poetry of Marin Sorescu, who uses a piece of Medieval history to stage an absurdist rebuff of Romania’s climate of fear under Ceausescu.
When we chose this theme in December, we did not know how we’d be feeling now. We’d like to be honest: many of us feel afraid. Wrongful deportations and arrests are a daily occurence; passports and paperwork are carried everywhere as proof of personhood. The topic of climate change, among many others, is being targeted. We are forced to weigh the risks to our planet against risks to our livelihoods and communities, and we resent that we often must choose. Faced with these choices, we hope that this issue of Exchanges can provide thought-provoking, creative answers, or at least a deeper understanding of our current climate.
Special thanks to Fanny Beury for generously sharing her art with us to feature alongside the pieces. Her “Mind Landscapes” series illustrates the dense layering of thought and feeling to form an environment, greater than the sum of its parts.
We are proud of the pieces in this issue, and grateful to all of our contributors.
Exchanges Editorial Team, 2024-25