This series of translations from fivehundred places is designed to explore some of the outer reaches of translation. Each book in the series is dedicated to multiple translations of a single poem. Inspired by a comment from Ilya Kaminsky about how translation should open windows and not create mirrors, artists, dancers, musicians, poets, philosophers, curators, writers and visual thinkers were invited to imagine translations from their unique perspective, using a poem as a starting point, to make a version of that poem.

Bernadette Mayer’s I am a common Merganzer..., is translated by: Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Ferris, Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Jennifer Lacey, Jochen Lempert, Dorothea Lasky, Raimundas Malasauskas, Donika Kelly, Luca Lo Pinto, Eva Barto, Nina Canell & Robin Watkins, Claire Fontaine, Imaad Majeed

‘Aviarium’ is a study of birdlife. In these fourteen poems, each focusing on a particular species of bird—from the hummingbird to the bone-eating vulture—swift and simple gestures are elevated: a folding wing; entrails descending down a canopy. Published by Fivehundred places, founded in 2012 by Jason Dodge. On the cover of each book is a dead scissor by Paul Elliman.