On today’s episode, host Marcela Sulak reads from Annna Herman’s books “Unicorn” and “The Book of Simple Medicines.” They are translated by Adriana X. Jacobs, who finds that “In Herman’s work, the comfort of rhyme and meter provide a meaningful contrast to the uncomfortable and disquieting tales and images that Herman composes.”
“At the end of the blocked path, at the edge of a thick forest,
There’s a house caught between two flickering flames.
Like Red Riding Hood I walk through the dim forest,
To my grandmother’s house, and the snow falls again.
I walk up to the edge of the dead end, to the edge of pain,
And under each and every step fear lurks like a wolf.
In the gap between the closed window and the shifting drape
Churns the story that lives in this house and was sketched
On a metal box I once bought – a colorful, peeling case –
Telling the tale of the girl with the red cape.”
About her own writing, Anna Herman has said: “My difficulty is in the possibility of my goal, for example, to use words to express a moan: Mmh-mmh-mmh.” Herman has also published a third book, “The Seen Twin.”
Texts:
Poems by Anna Herman, translated by Adriana X Jacobs, from Poetry International Rotterdam
Music:
The Sleeping Beauty – Tchaikovsky
Little Red Riding Hood – Amanda Seyfried
Mhm – Ram Orion
Producer: Ariella Plachta
Technical producer: Tammy Goldenberg
