Translation Tuesday: Two Poems by Lauris Veips

In its Translation Tuesday series, Asymptote has published two poems by the Latvian poet Lauris Veips. Veips is a poet and a PhD student in comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis. His first poetry collection, Interesantās dienas, appeared in 2020, and his second collection, Vēl un vēl, is due to be published in 2026. The first poem, "children's play," begins with a child's game, but this brief calm quickly gives way to fear and pursuit. In Asymptote's introduction, the poem is described as an image of the fleeting peace of childhood before a sudden, violent moment. The second poem, "it fits, but doesn't fill," opens from a simple image. A blanket without a land and without a name. From this ordinary object, the poem moves toward memory, loneliness, old age, the forest, and a silent violence. As Asymptote notes, a backdrop of violence runs throughout the poem, a violence that does not cry out openly but remains threatening. Both poems are written in spare language with a clear rhythm. Their world is built from small things. A game, sand, a blanket, an empty room, the forest. Yet behind these simple images, something heavier than personal memory comes into view.

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