Anna Gual is one of Catalunya’s most vital poetic voices. From her first book, Implosions (LaBreu Edicions, 2008), to her eighth, Les ocultacions (Proa, 2022), Gual’s exploration of the minute to the exponential, of the daily to the eternal, and the singular ways she writes this exploration, continues to move and irresistibly draw in poets, readers, and critics alike. Innombrable, translated by AKaiser, is forthcoming (Zephyr Press, 2025). https://annagual.cat (Photo Credit: Sílvia Servat)

TWO POEMS by Anna Gual, translated by AKaiser

Profanity

 

I didn’t want a map.
I wanted a machete to clear a path
in the jungle, to follow the unconscious.

When they say too late,
you mean maybe they’re not exaggerating?

I found a small knife
and I think I’ll be able to cut the plants
that get into my eyes,
those that obstruct my will,
those that exalt contradictions.

That’s right,
I didn’t want a map.

I wanted a God within everyone.

 

The evidence


A seaweed print dress
or some algae on a body
turned into a dress, or 
better,
a skin camouflaged among algae,
yes, that, a skin camouflaged among
algae inside the sea, 
cloudy, no,
floating, floating on the ocean,
no, floating, floating on a
river, that’s it, floating
down with the current
transparent river downward, yes, that,
transparent river flowing inward.

Unknown mystery hanging in the air.

Infinite the caress that is to come.

 

AKaiser is the Pushcart Prize-nominated author of <glint> (Milk & Cake Press) and an NEA-awarded translator of Catalan, French & Spanish. Poems, translations & photos in Amsterdam Quarterly, Circumference, Harvard Review, Pen + Brush’s In Print, No. 5, Poetry International, POETRY and The Rumpus. Poem “Astronaut, or Blues Singer” (<glint>) breathes in song, by Mel.lif.lu.ous. Unnamable, by Catalan poet Anna Gual, is forthcoming in English (Zephyr Press, 2025). https://akexperiments.org (Photo credit: F. Veyrat)

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