Alane Salierno Mason - Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers: An Anthology

Introduction
ANDRE DUBUS III

Where Are You Running To?
MA JIAN
China
Introduced byJonathan Safran Foer
Translated from the Chinese by Flora Drew

Meteorite Mountain
CAN XUE
China
Introduced byHa Jin
Translated from the Chinese by Zhu Hong

Looking for the Elephant
JO KYUNG RAN
South Korea
Introduced byDon Lee
Translated from the Korean by Heinz Insu Fenkl

Children of the Sky
SENO GUMIRA AJIDARMA
Indonesia
Introduced byPramoedya Ananta Toer
Translated from the Indonesian by John H. McGlynn

The Scripture Read Backward
PARASHURAM
Bangladesh
Introduced byAmit Chaudhuri
Translated from the Bengali by Sukanta Chaudhuri

The Unfinished Game
GOLI TARAGHI
Iran
Introduced byFrancine Prose
Translated from the Persian by Zara Houshmand

The Day in Buenos Aires
JABBAR YUSSIN HUSSIN
Iraq
Introduced byAlberto Manguel
Translated from the Arabic by Randa Jarrar

Two Poems
SANIYYA SALEH
Syria
Introduced byAdonis
Translated from the Arabic by Issa J. Boullata

Faint Hints of Tranquillity
ADANIA SHIBLI
Palestine
Introduced byAnton Shammas
Translated from the Arabic by Anton Shammas

Shards of Reality and Glass
HASSAN KHADER
Palestine
Introduced byAhdaf Soueif
Translated from the Arabic by Ahdaf Soueif

A Drowsy Haze
GAMAL AL-GHITANI
Egypt
Introduced byNaguib Mahfouz
Translated from the Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins

The Uses of English
AKINWUMI ISOLA
Nigeria
Introduced byWole Soyinka
Translated from the Yoruba by Akinwumi Isola

fromProvisional
GABRIELA ADAMESTEANU
Romania
Introduced byNorman Manea
Translated from the Romanian by Carrie Messenger

Two Poems
SENADIN MUSABEGOVIC
Bosnia
Introduced byAleksandar Hemon
Translated from the Bosnian by Ulvija Tanovic

fromExperiment with India
GIORGIO MANGANELLI
Italy
Introduced byRoberto Calasso
Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein

fromThe Fish of Berlin
ELEONORA HUMMEL
Germany
Introduced byGnter Grass
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

Seven Poems
BRONISLAW MAJ
Poland
Introduced by the Editors
Translated by Clare Cavanagh

fromHis Majesty, Almighty Death
MYRIAM ANISSIMOV
France
Introduced byCynthia Ozick
Translated from the French by C. Dickson

fromOctober 27, 2003
ETEL ADNAN
France
Introduced byDiana Abu Jaber
Translated from the French by C. Dickson with Etel Adnan

Vietnam. Thursday.
JOHAN HARSTAD
Norway
Introduced byHeidi Julavits
Translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik

Lightweight Champ
JUAN VILLORO
Mexico
Introduced byJavier Maras
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman

The Sheikas Condition
MARIO BELLATIN
Mexico
Introduced byFrancisco Goldman
Translated from the Spanish by Cindy Schuster

When I Was a Man
AMBAR PAST
Mexico
Introduced byElena Poniatowska
Translated from the Spanish by Samantha Schnee

fromRevulsion
HORACIO CASTELLANOS MOYA
El Salvador
Introduced byRoberto Bolao
Translated from the Spanish by Beatriz Cortez

The Chareron Inheritance
EVELYNE TROUILLOT
Haiti
Introduced byEdwidge Danticat
Translated from the French by Avriel Goldberger

from
Kinds Silence
MARCELA SOL
Argentina
Introduced byLuisa Valenzuela
Translated from the Spanish by Tobias Hecht

Baked Mud
JUAN JOS SAER
Argentina
Introduced byJos Saramago
Translated from the Spanish by Sergio Waisman

Swimming at Night
JUAN FORN
Argentina
Introduced byAriel Dorfman
Translated from the Spanish by Marina Harss

ANDRE DUBUS III

In November 1979, I was living in Austin, Texas, when Iranian students in Tehran overran the American embassy, and the hostage crisis began. In those early moments of what would become a 444-day standoff, young white men from Houston and Dallas cruised the streets in their late-model cars, stopping to beat up any man or boy who looked even remotely Iranian. Among the battered were Sudanese, Italians, El Salvadorans, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and quite a few Mexicans. They were called sand nigger and camel jockey and told to go home. Go Home.

Twenty-two years later, on a clear blue morning in September, we were attacked by a handful of men from a fundamentalist cult of a militant arm of an ancient religion, and we answered those attacks with attacks of our own, one of which was the beating of an elderly Sikh on a bus in Boston. Three men took him for Middle Eastern because he wore a turban, which somehow meant Muslim, which then meant terrorist, and they pummeled him.