From our archive

A Chapter in the Book of Existence: Part I

It is a humbling feeling, to stand in the midst of a forest. To be completely surrounded and outnumbered by life. Where every green thing moving in the wind is some form of the earth, living and breathing and evolving. Each rustle in the foliage is some creature.

Poems by Bronka Nowicka

Katarzyna Szuster-Tardi

The first thing about Bronka Nowicka’s work that resonated with me was her language, which seemed clean and effortless, yet at the same time left me with things to ponder and feel.

The Waltz of Missing Words

Eponine Howarth

In France, every new edition of the dictionary Le Petit Larousse removes around five hundred words. This means that, since its first edition in 1906, nearly ten thousand words have been withdrawn. Sure, plenty of new words have been added instead over time, but don’t you wonder what happened to the words that fell into disuse?

Endless

Gavin Bourke

Empty rooms / and corridors / apart / from the furniture / unmade bed

The Unusual Heartbreak of Endings

Chariklia Martalas

I wouldn't be able to list all the kinds of heartbreak even if I tried. To list all the heartbreaks would not just mean that I'd have to live more years of life but I would actually have to live multiple lives spanning all the different worlds of people. Recently, though, I have experienced a heartbreak- the end of a friendship that I thought would be an endure forever, let's grow old and tell everyone our love has survived decades, kind of friendship. The circumstances are too raw to share.

Bodies

Pamela Mandell

One early fall morning, Paul and I walked down to the beach to examine what looked like, from the small corner deck of my apartment, large pink slabs of flesh that had washed ashore during the night.

Four lines by Paul Celan

Translator: Dan Bellm
Author: Paul Celan

I began with one short, circumscribed, parenthetical, untitled poem, in a language I didn’t know, a spark of encounter and revelation, purposely fragmentary, and from these four lines, Paul Celan’s poetry has grown outward for me and become immense.

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Browse through our columns

A Series of Interlinked Essays

Writers are given the liberty to explore their ideas over a series of pieces. These ‘threads’ are woven together thematically or stylistically, and lightly but deftly touch on the feelings, objects, memories, and passions that pervade our days, crystallising them into psychological and artistic truth. They aim to "feel at each thread" of the mingled webs of our lives, as Pope says in his An Essay on Man: ‍ 'The spider’s touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.'

A Column on Translation

From Greek boardings on the Testament, to English translations of the Arabian Nights, all saw translation as an inherent part of reading and thought. But isn’t translation a greater enterprise of stone shaped into verse, and colour turned into melody? Wasn’t Bernini translating in exquisite marble Daphne’s myth? Aren’t Garcilasos’ verses a melodic translation of Daphne's pain? Isn’t translation, then, the intimate fibre of the most subtle artistic creations? Paraphrasis is the column in which writers are invited to join the modest but arcane craft of the translator by translating and engaging with a piece of poetry, prose, visual arts or music.

Staying at Home

In light of the recent global crisis, as well as the lockdown of multiple countries around the world, we have decided to publish a few new pieces every day in this special issue. Unlike our monthly issues and ‘The Thread’, our special issue will not feature original works submitted to LPB. Instead, we will feature work by a selection of the LPB team’s favourite artists, writers and musicians, to keep you company through these dark days, in the same way that they are doing so for us.

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