"An Apocryphal History of the Discovery of Migration, or The Sacrifice of the Pfeilstörchen" by Alba Cid

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( September 14, 2019 [“An Apocryphal History of the Discovery of Migration, or The Sacrifice of the Pfeilstörchen”]( [Alba Cid]( Translated by [Jacob Rogers]( [Read and listen]( to the poem in its original Galician. I, wearing heron symmetrically opposed over my chest, swore to the five emperors that there was no such thing as balance, that if herons upheld the rivers on all Chinese porcelain it was simply due to a locking mechanism in their joints. they awarded me for risking everything in my defense. I wrote to you a few years later. I said: Rostock, sixth of July, it’s awful of me to interrupt, but I just need you to understand how certain kinds of wounds can be useful. I’m finishing up an essay on pre-modern explanations for bird migration, and all the species seen since Aristotle’s time as either moon travelers or sailors that very rarely return. I even studied a pamphlet from 1703 that argues for the communion of swallows, that they gather in wetlands and follow a specific choreography to perch on top of the rushes until they sink. they spend winters underwater, in the hypnotic calm of the muck, and that’s why they emerge so klein damp in spring. but in 1822 (I carefully attached the photograph), an arrow pierced the neck of a stork in central Africa and the bird began its flight bearing both weapon and wound. when it reached Germany, someone identified the origin of the projectile, and went on to form a scientific hypothesis. I don’t remember much more of the letter, except: pain and brightness are distributed in equal parts, and lightness only exists because of past excess. Since it’s the migratory season (I concluded) I hope you don’t mind if I bypass the formula for farewells— Atlantic in between us, every anemone is fluttering along with the currents. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( © 2019 Alba Cid and Jacob Rogers. Published in Poem-a-Day in partnership with Words Without Borders on September 14, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. [Cid reads "“An Apocryphal History of the Discovery of Migration, or The Sacrifice of the Pfeilstörchen”."]( About This Poem “I began writing these ‘apocryphal/natural history poems’ a few years ago, as a way to embrace historical discoveries or curiosities and to produce sets of transparencies towards present debates or concerns of mine. I’m captivated by plants, etymologies, near and distant cultural practices and languages. In the case of this poem, I intermingled (pre)modern explanations for bird migration—as fantastical as they seem to us—, a fictive letter, and the ‘power’ of wounds, illustrated by these wounded storks, which carried African arrows when flying back to Europe.” —Alba Cid [Alba Cid]( Alba Cid is a Galician poet and researcher. Her poetry collection Atlas is forthcoming from Galaxia in 2019. She directs the John Rutherford Centre for Galician Studies at the University of Oxford, and divides her time between Oxford, England, and Santiago de Compostela, Spain. [Jacob Rogers]( Jacob Rogers is a translator of Galician literature, including Carlos Casares’s His Excellency (Small Stations, 2017). He lives in New York City. [His Excellency]( Translation by Rogers [His Excellency]( (Small Stations, 2017) "Ȟe Sápa, Four" by Layli Long Soldier [read-more]( "Borderbus" by Juan Felipe Herrera [read-more]( "Let Me Try Again" by Javier Zarmora [read-more]( Celebrating National Translation Month Today’s Poem-a-Day poem is presented in partnership with Words Without Borders and is a winner of their inaugural [Poems in Translation Contest]( judged by [Mónica de la Torre](. We will feature each of the four winning translations on Poem-a-Day every Saturday in September, National Translation Month. Your Support Makes Poem-a-Day Possible Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. This free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on the weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038