Poetry

HAND FULL OF WATER COVER FINAL2

Winner of the Adelbert-von-Chamissoförderpreis 2009

Winner of the Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation 2012

A Hand Full of Water is the most compelling volume in German verse since the work of Ingeborg Bachmann and Hans Magnus Enzensberger. […] The lucent version by Chantal Wright captures the verve and fluid images of Sofronieva’s poetry. In the best sense her translation stands as an original book of poetry.” —Willis Barnstone

For Tzveta Sofronieva, language is water that finds resistance across borders, her poetry flowing from her Balkan roots into her adopted German tongue, here iridescent in Chantal Wright’s beautiful translation, ‘seeking clues in the sand / that point to meaning’.” —Jeffrey Yang

The translation of Eine Hand voll Wasser was supported by a grant from the PEN/Heim translation fund and by a residency at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre

A Hand Full of Water by Tzveta Sofronieva (White Pine Press, 2012)  www.whitepine.org
Original Title: Eine Hand voll Wasser (UnArtig, 2008)

Listen to Tzveta Sofronieva read and discuss her poem ‘I want a woman’ on German radio station SWR2 (in German).