my cadastre

Uljana Wolf
Translated from the German

Imy fathersare simple menthey have daughtersjust as i amwe dare to questionwe wear our father’sembroidered wordinto the darkest woods IImy fathersare no simple menthey have daughtersjust as i amwe talk up a pacewe cheat in the chaseof our father’s wordstill in darkest woods IIImy mouthsare no simple fathersthe first one speaksi’ve measuredthe second keeps quieti wasn’t rememberedthe rest always quarrelthe rest get their way IVmy fathersare simple surveyorsthe first one leavesthe second callsthe third one linksthe countries to figures Vmy fathersare no simple surveyorsthe first remainsthe second one whinesthe third registerswhat the maps hide VImy mouthsare simple daughtersour cadastreswe hold them tightunder our heartswe write inside:love has limitshinging on date and site VIImy daughtersare no simple mouthswe grieve awhilewe lurk in defiancewe write in brackets:but love still roamsaround in maps(we’ve seen it) VIIImy fathersare no simple rhymeslove fumes in a betwith a filter cigarettemy daughtersare no foolish mouths(but it was time) 

mein flurbuch

Imeine vätersind einfache männersie haben töchterwie ich eine binwir fragen geschicktwir tragen gesticktunseres vaters wortnoch in die dunkelsten wälder IImeine vätersind keine einfachen männersie haben töchterwie ich eine binwir sagen geschicktwir jagen gespicktunseres vaters wortnoch in den dunkelsten wäldern IIImeine mündersind keine einfachen väterder erste sprichtich habe vermessender zweite schweigtich wurde vergessender rest ist sich uneinsder rest setzt sich durch IVmeine vätersind einfache vermesserder erste gehtder zweite ruftder dritte verbindetdie länder zu zahlen Vmeine vätersind keine einfachen vermesserder erste bleibtder zweite weintder dritte trägt einwas die karten verschweigen VImeine mündersind einfache töchterunsere flurbüchertragen wir emsigunter den herzenwir schreiben hinein:die liebe hat maßeverlässlich mit datum und ort VIImeine töchtersind keine einfachen münderwir trauern langewir lauern trotzigwir schreiben in klammern:die liebe streunt aber dochumher in den karten(wir habens gesehn) VIIImeine vätersind keine einfachen reimedie liebe raucht um die wettemit einer filterzigarettemeine töchtersind keine albernen münder(aber das musste sein)

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Uljana Wolf , born in 1979 in East Berlin, is an acclaimed German poet, translator, and essayist. Her work crosses poetry, translation, and languages in between. She has published four books of poetry, and numerous poetry translations, including works by Valzhyna Mort, Christian Hawkey, Matthea Harvey, Erín Moure, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, and Eugene Ostashevsky. Her collection of essays and talks, Etymologischer Gossip (Kookbooks), received the Prize of the Leipzig Bookfair for essays and nonfiction and is forthcoming in an English translation from Nightboat Books. English translations of her work include Subsisters: Selected Poems, translated by Sophie Seita (Belladonna*) and False Friends, translated by Susan Bernofsky (Ugly Duckling Presse). Wolf’s awards include the Adalbert von Chamisso Prize, the Villa Massimo Rome Prize, the Münster Prize for International Poetry, and the Peter Huchel Prize. A collection of academic writings on her work will be published by De Gruyter Verlag in 2023. Wolf teaches translation and poetry at various institutions including the Pratt Berlin Program and the Institute für Sprachkunst, Vienna.

Color mid-shot of translator Gregg Nissan

Greg Nissan is the author of The City Is Lush With / Obstructed Views (DoubleCross Press) and the translator of War Diary by Yevgenia Belorusets (New Directions). Their translations of Yevgenia Belorusets were presented in the 59th Venice Biennale, as well as in the accompanying publication In the Face Of War (Isolarii). They are the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Translation Fellowship to translate Austrian poet Ann Cotten’s Banned! An Epic Poem into English, as well as a Fulbright Scholarship.

New York, New York

The lyrical, imaginatively-crafted debut collection by one of Germany’s most important contemporary poets explores the “shifting of the mouth” toward the other, toward translation, toward a reckoning with historical silences.

In kochanie, today i bought bread, Uljana Wolf crosses borders from East Germany into Poland, from fairy tales to the tallying of land torn by fateful past, from women’s voices “hibernating in documents,” to Lavinia’s spilling forth of red language. Hailed by critics for its “brief strokes that open up a wide historical space in which political doom is still present,” this book is a testament that the cartography we inherit is equal parts limit and dare. Wolf’s debut collection won the Peter Huchel Prize in 2006—she was its youngest recipient. Nearly 20 years later, this bilingual edition—featuring a new introduction by Valzhyna Mort and Greg Nissan’s superbly-tuned translation—invites English-language readers into the “guest room” of poetry.

“Uljana Wolf’s first book begins with pain, a hospital, with a daughter who rebels against the controlling word of the fathers. But it goes farther. Its mouth shifts, playfully inventive, though with a dark undertone of Polish-German history, to find bread in language. Then even a mattress becomes translatable and everything connects ‘in this border trade / on my tongue.’”
—Rosmarie Waldrop

“The persistent word/sonic plays in kochanie, today I bought bread, brilliantly re-rendered by Greg Nissan, are Wolf’s defiance—‘my defiance is my instrument’—against Germany’s fascist history. The multiplicity of ‘mouths’ and ‘daughters’ topple ‘sir father herr father,’ generating linguistic displacement, hence subverting power and borders.”
—Don Mee Choi

“Nissan’s translations skillfully keep pace with Wolf’s brilliant word- and worldsmithery.”
—Susan Bernofsky

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