Modern Poetry in Translation Third Series–Number Eight

Getting it Across

Cable-Ship

We fished up the Atlantic cable betweeen Barbados and Tortuga, held up our lanterns and patched over the gash on its back, fifteen degrees north and sixty-one west. When we put our ears to the gnawed part we heard the murmuring of the cable. One of us said: ‘It’s the millionaires in Montreal and St John’s discussing the price of Cuban sugar and the lowering of our wages.’

We stood there long, thinking, in a lantern circle, we patient cable-fishers, then lowered the mended cable back to its place in the sea.

(Harry Martinson , trans. Robin Fulton)

‘Always informative, tactfully surprising, the new impressive MPT continues, undaunted, to advance through formidable language barriers.’ Dannie Abse

Also in this issue: Jenny Joseph, Annemarie Austin, Bernardo Atxaga and Robert Walser.

www.mptmagazine.com

Cover design by Lucy Wilkinson

ISBN 978-0-9545367-7-0 Price: £11 (UK)