Hannie Rouweler (Netherlands)

Hannie Rouweler (Netherlands)

Hannie Rouweler (Netherlands, Goor, 13 June 1951), poet and translator, has been living in Leusden, The Netherlands, since the end of 2012.  Her sources of inspiration are nature, love, loss, childhood memories and travel. In 1988 she debuted with Raindrops on the water. Since then about 40 poetry volumes have been published, including translations in foreign languages (Polish, Romanian, Spanish, French, Norwegian, English). Poems have been translated in about 35 languages. She followed several commercial and language trainings (Arnhem, Amsterdam, Hasselt BE) and attended five years evening classes in painting and art history, art academy (Belgium). Hannie writes about a variety of diverse topics. ‘Poetry is on the street, for the taking’, is an adage for her. She mixes observations from reality with imagination and gives a ‘pointe’ to her feelings and findings.

Unrestrained imagination plays a major part in her works. She received several awards from the Netherlands and foreign countries. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the yearly Kritya festival, India. She published a few stories (e.g. short thrillers); is editor of various poetry collections.

 

 

1-     SOMETIMES WORDS ARE

nothing but a bucket of water

which you empty over a terrace.

Everything goes its own way and runs to an edge

where it stays for a while.

I fall short immensely and the words

that should have been different;

 

acceptance of fate that compels resignation

and leaves me in countless defenseless places.

I don't fight anymore, I let it be,

it feels like an old sore with stitches breaking open

on this winter day where sunlight casts bright shadows

brighter than before

on windows, the cold glass of untouchable shapes.

 

 

2-     Me and my shadow

Me and my shadow, we're best friends

whatever you can think of,

we always find each other

at the craziest times of the day, night,

not that we always love each other as much as couples in love forever

after years and years still taste the flame, the torch of unbreakability

no, not at all,

it's more like: I know where you're going

you don't have to explain anything to me

there is no need for you to send me signals of your intentions beforehand

I don't need your permission.

My shadow and I flow into each other

get along well in fierce contradictions

black white or white black

and yet, we still think of each other: we keep it convenient

in good times and bad times,

you get used to what always walks with you unseen, gets lost.

 

 

3-     I SEND YOU FLOWERS

a rose for the sun that shines through bare branches

a rose for two birds in the tree

a rose for the chrysanthemums that are in bloom

a rose for all the clouds in the sky

 

a rose for the love that it is lasting

a rose for perseverance in all struggles

a rose for the warmth you give me

a rose for all the thoughts I share with you

 

a rose for luck in misfortune and bad luck

a rose for the bed that remains on the floor

a rose for the view I have together with you

a rose for times that slide along a ruler.

---

Setu, November 2022

Jeton Kelmendi (Kosovo)

Acad. Prof. Jeton Kelmendi PhD (Kosovo)

 

Poet, player, publicist, translator, publisher, a professor of university and academic.

    Born in the city of Peja, Kosovo (1978), Jeton Kelmendi completed elementary school in his birth place. Later he continued his studies at the University of Pristina and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Mass communication. He completed his graduate studies at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, specializing in International and Security Studies. He finished his second master’s degree in diplomacy. Kelmendi did a PhD in the “Influence of media in EU Political Security Issues”. He is professor at AAB University College. He is active member of the European Academy of Science and Arts in Salzburg Austria. For many years he has written poetry, prose, essays and short stories. He is a regular contributor to many newspapers, in Albania and abroad, writing on many cultural and political topics, especially concerning international affairs. Jeton Kelmendi became well known in Kosova, after the publication of his first book entitled: “The Century of Promises” (“Shekulli i Premtimeve”), published in 1999.  Later he published a number of other books. His poems are translated in more that thirty-seven languages and published in several international Literature Anthologies. He is the most translated Albanian Poet and well known in Europe. According to a number of literary critics, Kelmendi is the genuine representative of modern Albanian poetry. International critics and poets wrote for him a lot of articles, considering him as great European poet. He is a member of many international cultural institutions, poetry clubs and is a contributor to many literary and cultural magazines, in different Languages around the world. The wisdom of his work in the field of Literature is based in the attention that he pays to the poetic expression, modern exploration of the text and the depth of the message.  His Genre is focused more on love lyrics and elliptical verse intertwined with metaphors and artistic symbolism. Currently resides and works in Brussels, Belgium and in Pristina, Kosovo.

 

 

1-     ILLYRIAN

 

Your body weight

Your air power

The speed slowdown

Are immeasurable

There are no limits to your light

Either

There is no measure of your radiance

Or

You are superlative that exceeds all dimensions

I swear to my word’s soul

You’re

A crumb of forgetfulness

Beyond the ear or the eye

For hundreds and thousands of years

You’re

A bright thought

And never

Has anybody ever been able to appraise you

My god given homeland that conferred me my name

Albanian

 

 

 

2-     HER RITES

 

After all

It’s a fresh start

And there’s no way how you can go in silence

No way leads me to you

Sooner than today

My star set

And the higher I go

The lower does the fog take me

Oh, had I experienced a genuine love

I’d dread nothing

And it’s not a bad thing to dream

 

 

3-     THE WORD SIDESTEPPED SILENCE

 

I used to keep silent

Yesterday

In order to speak a bit

I’ve inhaled sorrow’s breath

I’ve always set off

To remote regions

Towards your eyes

To you

To quietly speak to you

To tell you

About you

And me

I’ve endeavoured

To tell you

That you’re

The bread of lines

The water of the word

I for you

The most sung song

Ever

I wanted to keep silent

To scarcely speak

To become a shadow

To prevent the sun’s light

I’ve wanted

To get over

All humanity’s

Mishaps

And I’ve seen

How I could

Find myself

Closer to you

Soon or later

Yesterday

I’ve strived

To enjoy to the fullest.

---

Setu, November 2022

Claudia Piccinno (Italy)

Claudia Piccinno

Dr. Claudia Piccinno (Italy)

 

Claudia Piccinno is a teacher, poet and translator, she lives and teaches in the north of Italy.  Operating in more than 100 anthologies, she’s member of the jury in many national and international literary prizes. She has been the Continental Director for Europe in the World Festival Poetry from April 2019 to september 2021, she represents Istanbul culture in Italy as Ambassador of Ist Sanat Art Association. She has published 41 poetry books, among her own poetry collections and other poets' translations into Italian language.

She was conferred with the most prestigious award “Stele of Rosetta” in Istanbul in 2016, the Literary Awards Naji Naaman Prize 2018, “World icon for peace” for Wip in Ondo city, Nigeria, in April 2017; Global Icon Award 2020 for Writers Capital International Foundation, The light of Galata, Turkey 2021, Sahitto International Jury Award, Bangladesh 2021,Aco Karamanov festival in Radovish,Macedonia,2021.

She gained almost 250 prizes in Italy for poetry and cultural merits. Her poem "In Blue" is played on a majolica stele posted on the seafront in Santa Caterina di Nardo (Le). She is European editor for the international literary magazine Papirus in Turkey and for Atunis Magazine international.

 She is responsible for poetry in the Italian magazine called Gazzetta of Istanbul, printed in Turkey by the Italian community. She writes for e-magazine and literature newspapers such as Menabò, Verbumpress, Il Porticciolo.

Her website is https://claudiapiccinno.weebly.com

 

1-     In the alphanumeric code

 

You didn’t know you were

in the alphanumeric code

of my every access.

Dates, anniversaries, memories

difficult to decipher.

How anonymous is your face

behind a screen.

Quiet is the glitter

of the look.

Extinguished is my smile

of circumstance.

I receive every day

love letters

poems that swell

the book of flatterers.

I read them without surprise,

I catalog them in a protocol

which looks like a reptile house.

I prepare myself for silence.

My mind is looking for coolness

of an Augustan night and

everything else is noise.

 

 

2-     The art of subtracting

 

I’m learning the art of substracting

For a long time I have put in place forgetfulness,

I slavishly ignore names and surnames,

I mix the dates, I take out square roots

that decrease pain.

I wonder how many brackets I will have to solve

before finding the specific gravity of that boulder

that obstructs lightness to my heart.

I rely on automatisms and inertia

every time I lose my words,

I try to prove a statement

without memorized formulas,

I am reminded of the theory of variables

and I persist in looking for the x

lightening the constants

that will never equal the give and take.

 

---

Setu, November 2022

Isilda Nunes (Portugal)

Isilda Nunes (Portugal)

Isilda Nunes is a Portuguese award-winning writer and artist. Recently she won among other recognitions, the Intercontinental World Poetry Prize “Kairat Dusseinov Parman”, the World Prize “Cesar Vallejo 2020” for Literary Excellence, the “Grito de Mujer Lisbon 2021 Award”, the “Aguila de Oro” for Literary and Artistic Excellence, “Escudo del Plata, “Especial Lusofonia”, “Latinoamericano à la Difusion Educativa, Literária e Cultural 2021 Award” and “I Premi Lido Dell’Anima Mihai Eminescu 2022” She has poems translated into English, Spanish, Hindi, Serbian, Polish, Bengali and Mandarin and edited in India, Bangladesh, Poland, Serbia, Brazil, Peru, Croatia, Greece, Republic of Seychelles, United States, Turkey, New Zealand and China. She is co-author of about fifty national and international anthologies and solo books of poetry and prose, such as novels, short stories and manuals.

She has organized and participated in various national and foreign festivals and events.

 

1-     OF YOU NOTHING REMAINS

Of you, nothing remains except the silence

perched in the farewell antechamber.

Inert, glacial, incisive

hovers in the penumbra

of sunset.

 

Anemic chalice spilled

on the yellowish towel,

of desuded repast.

The imminent almost, prophesied

in the evocative amnesia of us,

echoes insistent,

annoying,

purging spectres

in the saline footsteps of the fatum.

 

What has become of us?

Where have we forgotten?

From me,

in alienation,

I know myself lost.

Of you,

I glimpse nothing

than silence.

Cold, cutting, implosive,

perched in the farewell antechamber.

 

 

2-     THE LAST TRAIN

Of us, only the pain remains,

which gnaws at my soul.

Where does the scent of jasmine hover?

Where does the announced spring live?

Today, the corpse of me

survives in the disarray of emotions.

Translucent dust

volutes in the dug cracks,

on the lacerated face

on the tortured body.

At the hands of pseudo-love,

the sacred feminine outraged.

The scourged flesh.

The inert soul, in the induced shortcut.

At the curve of the road,

the last train

appeals to detachment.

And you?

Coldly you crush the cigarette.

---

Setu, November 2022

Anna Keiko (China)

Anna Keiko (China)

Anna Keiko: (China) Poet, writer, once studied law at the School of Political Science and Law, Shanghai East China University, permanently living in Shanghai, China. Founder and Chief Editor of ACC Shanghai Huifeng Literature Association and Chinese representative and director of the international cultural foundation ITHACA; partner of Immagine & Poesia in Italy; international member of the Canadian-Cuban Literary Union; specially invited poet of the International Writers Magazine; member of the Board of Directors of the Young Writers Magazine. Her poems have been rendered into more than 30 languages, and over 2,000 poems have been published in more than 200 poetry journals, magazines, newspapers and self-media in over 40 countries. Anna Keiko has been invited to participate in dozens of international poetry festivals and poetry exchange conferences. On January 18, 2022, she won the "Best Foreign Female Writer Award" of the 28th International Poetry "Squid Bone" in Italy. On 27 May 2021, she won the "Best Writer in A Foreign Language " award at the COVID-19 International Poetry Competition in Italy. On July 15, 2021, she won Naji Naaman Literary Prizes 2021. On October 8, 2020, she won the "Best Foreign Writer" Category A prize in the eighth "Color of Soul" International Poetry Competition held in SAN Remo, Italy. 12, 2020, she was awarded IL Meleto di Guido Gozzano（Italy）Prize for Literature. In 2019 she was granted the Mihai Eminescu College Medaland received a certificate of honor at the poetry, painting and music event in Curtea de Arges, granted with the King Bashab Nigo medal. In 2019, on the International Poetry Festival in Santiago de Chile she was granted the outstanding contribution award and a certificate to poetry. She was awarded the eighth Guido Gozzano Prize for Literature on September 12, 2020. And the Sydney National Award for Contribution to International Poetry　In addition, she got the honorary certificate of the 2nd Chalkida International Poetry Festival in Greece; "Chinese Contemporary Literature and Art Award" and the Chinese Poetry Annual Celebrity List and many other awards. Anna Keiko got four collections of her poems published and co-authored dozens of literary books as well. Anna Keiko also has remarkable publications ranging from prose, essays, lyrics, drama to sketch comedy, etc.

 

1-     Sunrise of hope

 

The light of dawn

erases the traces of the night

relentlessly, time goes on flowing

although I wish it would stop

like a picture fixed by the camera’s lens

because as valuable like fruit in a tree is life

Like the moon ascending at night

 

so you are, my love, whatever happens

wherever you are, I keep you in my heart

since I am in love with you my world has changed

because two hearts found a home of tenderness

sunrays play on the heartstrings of love

lighting up the dawn of hope.

 

 

2-     Soul dwelling

――The Muse Garden

 

Abode of the soul

I’m wandering around my abode

its infinite windows reach beyond poetry

and through some of its noble doors

the eyesight cannot pervade

 

there are countless rooms

as beautiful as sleep

its visitors are like summer’s tenderness

I rise a small hand

searching for its vault

 

Translation Germain Droogenbrood

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Setu, November 2022