Poetry Foundation Magazine, Volume 225, Issue #5, March 2025

Poetry Foundation Magazine

by Esther Belin (Editor)

Diné bizaad is a language of patience and cunning. It is quiet, in the distance, like a coming storm.

Jake Skeets

Genres: Poetry

106 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2025

Reviews

[Samuel Smith]

Favorites: "If Senses"

[Sucre · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's a wonderful diverse range of poetry here, as well as some memoir sections and in general a lot of great discussion and thoughts on language + translation. i really enjoyed the round table discussion included at the end of the magazine, and will be looking up a number of these poets to find more of their work!

[Alan Zhu · Rating 2 out of 5]

struggled with this one, which is okay, I think. we talked a lot about translation's "transparency" in my play translation class, about the balance between how it brings us versus erases the source culture of a text. I think my question remains—how do we avoid erasing a source culture without creating distance to the target? how do we bridge the gap while remaining distinct, or should we do that at all? this collection answers that by creating distance, which is fine, but makes it harder to read

I guess my other gut feeling is also that language doesn't change our perception of the world that much - that the world's complexities are observable regardless of what words you use and in what order - but English and Mandarin are ultimately significantly more similar than one might expect; perhaps I should learn a more distant language.

favorites: "The Sound of Water", "dáádílkał", "If Senses"

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

good stuff here, I'm not the target audience but I appreciate the craft

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3&1/2 stars, a good edition

[emily]

there's no entry for october 2025 so this is my solution for book goal purposes