Translation – always one of the key arts of literature – has a particular importance in Australia, where our writers draw upon so many traditions and write in so many languages that, just to know what our literature is, we have to be continually translating ourselves to ourselves. This issue looks at the arts of translation as they are understood and practiced in this country, and gives Southerly’s readers a tantalising glimpse of what its translators are choosing to work on. Herein, and this is only the tip of the iceberg, you will find a short story by the remarkable Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard (in alternate translations!), a haunting selection of Andreas Aggelakis, one of the finest Greek poets of the modern day, several poems from the Cuban poet José Kozer’s extraordinary Anima, plus statements and reflections on the art of translation by some of Australia’s best literary translators. From Baudelaire to Bei Dao, Linda Lê to Alejandro Carrizo, post-war Polish poetry to the ancient Persians, Golden Tongues is not only a salute to the translator’s art, but a sumptuous anthology of international material, much of which has never been seen in English before – accompanied, as always, by some of the best new Australian writing and criticism.