Repetition NineteenMnica de la Torre At the heart of Repetition Nineteen are twenty five unreliable translations of a poem in Mnica de la Torres first book, written in Spanish. She embarked on this new genre defying project after realizing she had been living in New York for as long as she had lived in Mexico City, where she was born. The works here focus on translation as displacement, mediation, and a form of code switching. In the latter half of the book, Replay, we

Rode komeet gaat over een leven in volledige toewijding – niet aan de dood maar aan de kunst

over verliefdheid

zo vanzelfsprekend

and only time – embodied here in Lisa Robertson’s forceful cadences – can tell

aan gerechtigheid

fairy tales

maar wel spannend

Milkweed Smithereens gathers lively

and the truth about what it’s like to be red

both halves of Repetition Nineteen celebrate translation’s possibilities and political relevancy

Holly Pester's extraordinary debut collection of poems

The compositional logic may in essence be a logic of self-punishment – “I am a stupid cunt” – but embraced and played out in language