Wisp
Over the course of a partnership spanning nearly two decades, poets Jan Wagner and David Keplinger have crafted a distinctly collaborative exchange between original German and American letters. Now, in this masterful dual-language poetry collection, they muse at the constraints of translation, challenging its boundaries while weaving their distinct voices in lyrical call and response. Together, they marvel at what translation can be: a tempered conversation in metered rhyme.
From their poetic cross-pollination, ethereal wisps unfurl from everyday objects—a spiral of hair, an iridescent snail’s path, the twist of a tornado’s funnel. Flora and fauna, they discover, act as foliage to veiled, hidden universes. Flamingoes curve into question marks, fishhooks become wedding rings, and Pirelli tires glide into panthers. “She trails a silver-tail / behind herself,” the speaker muses, “something like a falling / star.”
Showcasing traditional forms—including ghazal, sonnet, and haiku—Wagner and Keplinger rebel against each fixed container until otherworldly realms emerge. Kaleidoscopic and cyclical, these poems are a feat of literary acrobatics on display, suspending us in surprise and wonder.
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Jan Wagner
Jan Wagner is a German poet, essayist, and translator. His collections of poems include Guerickes Sperling, Achtzehn Pasteten, Australien, and Regentonnenvariationen, for which he was awarded the Prize of the Leipzig Bookfair.
David Keplinger
David Keplinger is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Another City, which was awarded the 2019 UNT Rilke Prize, and Ice, which won the 2024 Ellen Anderson Award from the Poetry Society of Virginia.
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