The good folks at The Collagist have seen fit to bring you in their July issue my translation of “The Great Pity of the Zintram Family†by Belgian fabulist Anne Richter. I’ve written about before Richter at Weird Fiction Review and for Not a Journal, the Small Beer Press blog. To celebrate this happy publication, here’s a preview from the story, a kooky dinner prayer:
O Fire! Tonight we bring you our watery dreams.
Wring them, dry them, destroy them.
Water speaks of sleep and death, but we want life.
Be our watcher and our guardian, our father and soldier.
Protect the parents from the children and the children from themselves.
Heal our little Arthur,
Guide his steps through the house, through the meadow, to the pond’s edge.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
Enlighten us, warm us, keep the waters from this house.
So be it.