“Untitled” by Soňa Pokorná, translated by Filip Noubel

Danger of broken glasses looming

So we canceled cheek kissing

And started hugging

—

Crossing an infinity of hugs

your hand’s touch

in the kitchen

Líbání na tváře jsme zrušili

hrozilo rozbití brýlí

Začali jsme se tedy objímat

—

A přes všechna ta obejmutí

dotek tvé ruky v kuchyni

Soňa Pokorná is a Czech photographer and poet who organizes literary happenings at her home, known as bytovka, and in public spaces. In the spring of 2023, she self-published her first collection of texts – mostly poems – and photographs, called Jahody a steaky (Strawberries and Steaks). In the fall of 2023, together with artist Kino Peklo, she released the soundtrack OD KRVE DO KRVE (From Blood to Blood), on the music label a~scent, an offshoot of the queer publishing house Adolescent. She lives in Prague.

Filip Noubel is a journalist and literary translator who inhabits the spaces of Chinese, Czech, English, French and Russian languages. He believes translation is disruption. He has translated Yevgeny Abdullayev, Radka Denemarková, Soňa Pokorná, Huang Chong-kai, Hamid Ismailov, Martin Ryšavý, Tsering Woeser, Guzel Yakhina, Yang Kuisong and Zhang Qianfan, among others. He is also an editor, curator, interviewer, podcaster and translator for Asymptote Journal, Dandu, Global Voices, Graminées, Jentayu, The Vernacularists – and now for Masticadores Taiwan. When he lives in Taipei, he dreams of Kathmandu.