Poetry

Fail Better

by Anna Gual

translated by AKaiser

Pieces of paper wadded up next to a pad — Photo by Steve Johnson / Unsplash.com

It’s like that. Murky awakening
to the stories of others.

They give us outlines we’ve to fill in.
Bushels full of obstacles.

Creation comes
with impediment.

When the hand writes
it becomes clear there’s a narrator
who thinks while invoking.

Exercise error.
Word correction.

I’ve read and understood
and I’ve failed,
but not in vain.

Translation from the Catalan

Editorial note: For two other poems on critics and their subjects, we recommend “Shakespeare Doesn’t Care,” by Rita Dove, from Playlist for the Apocalypse (2021) and “Critics,” by Stephen Dunn, from Everything Else in the World (2006).

Editorial note: From Unnameable, forthcoming from Zephyr Press.

Anna Gual is one of Catalunya’s most vital poetic voices. Her quests, and the singular ways in which she goes about and records them, draw in poets, readers, and critics alike. Gual’s collections have been translated into French, Italian, and Spanish. Unnameable, translated into English by AKaiser, is forthcoming in fall 2025 from Zephyr Press.

AKaiser is an NEA-awarded translator and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. The author of glint, her poems, translations, and photos have been anthologized and have appeared in Allium, Amsterdam Quarterly, Four Way Review, Harvard Review, Poetry, and Poetry International. Unnameable is the first collection of Gual’s to appear in English.