Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature

Passage. Kammerspiel

Christoph Hein — 2025-06-10

The chamber play Passage by the East Berlin author Christoph Hein was originally published in 1987 in the GDR’s theater journal, Theater der Zeit, and has been reprinted several times since. It opened nearly simultaneously in Dresden, Essen, and Zürich in the fall of 1987 and had its US premiere in Las Vegas, in an earlier version of this translation, in November 2017.

Amurgul Gîndurilor

William Sayers — 2025-06-06

Emil Mihai Cioran wrote Amurgul gîndurilor (The Twilight of Thoughts) in Paris in the 1930s as one of his last works, along with Îndreptar patimaş (The Passionate Handbook), in his native Romanian before switching to French (Amurgul gîndurilor, Sibiu: Dacia Traiana, 1940). This may have been not so much for the supposed greater analytic clarity of French prose as an escape from the mindset of an unreflected-on native language with its inevitable conceptual constraints. These final Romanian texts are rightly seen as harbingers of what was to come in his work written in French.

Thinking Fish in the Water

Deborah Amberson — 2025-06-10

The intensity of the relationship between fish and water emerges forcefully in the small selection of English language poems that form the literary corpus for this essay. These well-known poems, dating from 1923 to 1983, include Lawrence’s aforementioned “Fish,” the poem on which I will focus most intensely, Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish,” and three of Ted Hughes’s poems: “Pike,” “October Salmon,” and “Salmon Eggs.” Across these poetic works, fish are characterized by a tenacious vitality that opens on to an alterity at once ontological, epistemological, and temporal. These poetic pike and salmon, by turns aloof, sensuous, noble, fatalistic, and menacing, offer a telling unfathomability that captivates the poets as much as it estranges. It is precisely this unfathomability that makes the human attempt to grasp fish essence or fishness such a critical issue within animal studies and the environmental humanities. Engaging with aquatic life forces us to pose those crucial questions that Kari Weil formulates as follows: “how to understand and give voice to others or to experiences that seem impervious to our means of understanding; how to attend to difference without appropriating or distorting it.” Together Lawrence, Bishop, and Hughes attempt this work of engagement with fish being or what it is to live as a fish, succeeding, at times, in their efforts to “attend to difference,” but also failing frequently, and, more importantly, failing in ways that illuminate humanity’s efforts to engage with animal alterity as a whole.

A Sceno do Odio

José de Almada-Negreiros — 2025-06-10

José Sobral de Almada-Negreiros was born on April 7, 1893 in the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe. He was a multidisciplinary artist whose extraordinary work as a poet and painter have had a lasting influence on Portuguese culture. In addition to literature and painting, Almada-Negreiros also created ballet choreographies, tapestries, engravings, murals, caricatures, mosaics, azulejo paintings, and stained-glass work.

“Uma Simples Flor nos Teus Cabelos Claros”

Paul Melo e Castro — 2025-06-06

English translation of 'Uma simples flor nos teus cabelos claros' by José Cardoso Pires.

Exploring a World of Tranquility and Freedom

Lan Du — 2025-06-10

Lan Du, an emerging novelist from Inner Mongolia in northern China, is known for her magical realism, modern narrative, and imaginative style. “Uneg the Fool Disappeared” is a short story first published in Harvest (2019), the premier literary journal in China. The tale blends poetic language and vivid imagination, weaving together elements of vitality and languor to create a unique narrative tapestry. Set against the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, a place teeming with untamed beauty and natural vigor, the story centers on Uneg, an alienated protagonist. Born with an inherent wildness and primal force, Uneg encounters hostility from townsfolk who fear change and nature. The narrative follows a destiny marked by the theme of “alienation-conflict-return to nature.”

“Nuits partagées” by Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard — 2025-06-10

Paul Éluard (1895–1952) authored more than thirty poetry collections, including Capitale de la douleur (1926) and La rose publique (1934). With André Breton, Éluard coauthored the seminal surrealist work L’immaculeé conception (1930). He also published short collections in which his poetry is accompanied by the visual art of surrealist artists such as Max Ernst, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso. In addition, he wrote essays and produced anthologies and translations. Along with André Breton, Phillipe Soupault, and Louis Aragon, he developed the surrealist movement as it grew out of Dadaism and remained steadfast in his commitment to it until 1938, when he left the movement. A veteran of World War I, during the 1920s and 1930s he became a committed Communist and anti-fascist. In 1942, the Royal Air Force dropped thousands of leaflets of his poem “Liberté” (originally titled “Une seule pensée”) over occupied France. He became a hero of the Resistance. After the war, he embraced the cause of peace. He died of a heart attack in 1952. His funeral was sponsored by the French Communist Party and was attended by thousands of mourners. He’s buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Light Cream Pods

Fatimah Tuggar — 2025-06-10

Light Cream Pods is an installation-based artwork characterized by simultaneous interactions with calabashes (woody gourds) and virtual visual and audio occurrences through augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), and animatronic sculptures, all housed in an architectural façade inspired by Tubali Hausa vernacular architecture. The artwork is part of the Creations Reaction’s series.

Emigrés by Richard Scholar

Sylvie Blum-Reid — 2025-06-10

Richard Scholar: Emigrés: French Words That Turned English.
Princeton UP, 2020.

Columns by Nikolai Zabolotsky

Anna Krushelnitskaya — 2025-06-10

Nikolai Zabolotsky. Columns. Translated from Russian by Dmitri
Manin. Introduction by Darra Goldstein. Arc Publications, 2023.
Paperback, 144 pages. $16.49. ISBN: 9781911469155

Negro Mountain by C. S. Giscombe

James McCorkle — 2025-06-10

C. S. Giscombe. Negro Mountain. University of Chicago Press, 2023. Paperback, 91 pages. $18.00. ISBN: 9780226829715.

Finding My Shadow by Diego Bastianutti

Mary Watt — 2025-06-10

Diego Bastianutti. Finding My Shadow: A Journey of Self-Discovery. Club Giuliano Dalmato, 2022. Paperback, 160 pages + 6 color illustrations. $30.00. ISBN: 9781777854447

Preface

Gabriele Belletti — 2025-06-10

We are pleased to present Delos 39.2, which continues the journal’s commitment to fostering dialogue among languages, cultures, and literary traditions. This issue features a rich selection of essays, translations, and reviews exploring a diverse array of authors and themes. Many of the contributions stem from the Call for Submissions launched in issue 38.2, which initiated an in-depth reflection on topics such as Environmental Literature, the Literature of Migration, and Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, Delos maintains its open and interdisciplinary nature, welcoming contributions that span various genres and critical approaches, in keeping with the journal’s spirit.

Notes on Contributors

Delos Editors — 2025-06-10