Issue 87 Allison A. deFresse & Carolina Esses

from Winter Season

                                                             Why do you pretend to be stone, wind, bird? 
                                                                                                 - A. AJMÁTOVA



ONE STANDS STILL while another takes flight, 
each according to their nature,
I understand stones and birds.
Even the elusive owl. 
If I grew a stem, roots, leaves
if I sunk in the water, without breathing but without dying
if I were born with runners’ legs, 
burro ears, an eye in the middle of my forehead….







Translated by Allison A. deFresse

Writer and journalist Carolina Esses (Buenos Aires, Argentina) has published several  books of poems, including Versiones del paraíso/Variations on Paradise (Del Dock, 2016) and Temporada de invierno/Winter Season (Bajo la luna, 2009, translation by Allison A. deFreese published by Entre Ríos Books, Seattle). Her poems have previously been translated into French and have appeared in the anthology Poésie récente d'Argentine, une anthologie possible/Recent Poetry from Argentina: a Possible Anthology, published by Editorial Reflet de Lettres. A literary critic for La Nación, Argentina's leading daily paper, she is also the author of several novels.

Carolina with long hair in a field, wearing a tropical patterned shirt

Poet and literary translator Allison A. deFreese‘s work appears in Asymptote, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, and Hunger Mountain. Her translation of Carolina Esses’s book Winter Season was recently published by Entre Ríos Books (2023).

Photo: Crédito de foto, Fotografía Avila 2024