“Where the water sleeps.” One of the myriad possibilities to render “island” in a language one of us speaks. 

This issue of ellipse surged from the very shore, and our shared human presence, as we gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, meeting place of water and land. It emerged as fluid dialogue, a volcanic eruption of thoughts, a tectonic movement of feeling and memory, an erosion of self by water and waves and language, in flux yet resilient as coral reef.

In this issue we opened the magazine to works that speak to archipelagos, islands, and shores as territories at once singular and multiple, isolated and connected, whose materiality exists both inward and always in relation. We invited authors who write from these territories, engaging with them, through language, as poetic and epistemic sites—at once intimate and political. We are pleased to bring to you translations of poems and prose from Galician, Wayuunaiki, Italian, Danish, Russian, Spanish, Persian, French, South Slavic Vernacular, Old English, German, and Danish, by authors from Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Russia, Iran, and beyond. 

In her translation of “on meaning” from Chus Pato’s Sonora, Erín Moure writes: 

“meaning is no other than this
in you
the island abides” 

In times of tidal waves, we hope these stay with you, a gesture of trust in language and poetry to help keep us whole.