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Tadpoles
Primo Levi
Translated by Simon Rees
‘It was a harsh and brutal puberty: the tiny creatures began to fret, as if an inner sense had forewarned them of the torment in store’
2023 Forward Prizes
Withstances
‘I alone know a running stream
that is recovery partly and dim sweat
of a day-fever’
A poem by Rowan Evans.
In Conversation
‘Humour is a thread we hang onto. It punctures through the fog of guilt.’
Momtaza Mehri in conversation with Warsan Shire.
In Conversation
‘Something shifted in me that night. A small voice in my head said, maybe you can make a way for yourself as a poet here, too.’
Mary Jean Chan in conversation with Andrew McMillan.
Joy and Insecurity in Port-au-Prince
‘There was to be an exhibition. There were lots of pictures like his, apparently – of waiters, pastry cooks, valets, bellboys.’
An essay by Jason Allen-Paisant from Granta 159: What Do You See?
Naming
‘I have started to see that nothing is itself’
A poem by Jason Allen-Paisant from Granta 154: I’ve Been Away for a While.
Primo Levi
Primo Levi (1919–1987) was an Italian writer and chemist. In 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz, an experience he addressed in the memoir If This Is a Man and the essay collection The Drowned and the Saved, as well as in other works. His story collection The Periodic Table was named by the Royal Institution of Great Britain as the best science book ever.
More about the author →Translated by Simon Rees
Simon Rees is a librettist, writer and translator working from Italian, French and German. His novels include The Devil’s Looking-Glass, Nathaniel and Mrs Palmer and Making a Snowman. He was dramaturg at the Welsh National Opera from 1989 to 2012, and has also written operas, poetry collections, plays, lyrics and librettos.
More about the translator →