Translations from
NOTHING THE SUN COULD NOT EXPLAIN
20 Contemporary Brazilian Poets
EUA, 1997
THE ANIMAL ALPHABET
The animal alphabet
has twenty-three paws
more or less
where it passes
words and phrases
are born
like phrases
wings are fashioned
words
the slight wind
the animal alphabet
passes
what one does not write remains
Tr. Michael Palmer
THROUGH
through
magnolia
white
the
morning
blue
sees
red
Tr. Michael Palmer
THE ASSASSIN WAS THE SCRIBE
My professor of syntactical analysis was a sort of
nonexistent subject.
A pleonasm, principal predicate of your life,
common as a paradigrn of conjugation.
Between subordinated oration and adverbial
adjunct he had no doubts: always found an
asyndetic way to torture us with an appositive.
He married grammatical rectitude.
Was unhappy.
Was possessive like a pronoun.
And she was bitransitive.
He tried to go to the USA.
No way.
They discovered an indefinite article in his suitcase.
His moustache's exclamation point declined explicatives,
connectives and passives, forever.
One day I greased him with a direct object through the head.
Tr. Michael Palmer
once
we were going to be homer
the work an iliad no less
later
things got tougher
we could maybe manage a rimbaud
an ungaretti some fernando pessoa
a lorca a ginsberg an éluard
finally
we ended up the minor provincial poet
we were always
hiding behind the many masks
time treated as flowers
Tr. Regina Alfarano, with revisions by Robert Creeley
pauloleminski
is a mad dog
that must be beaten to death
with a rock with a stick
or else he might very well
the sonofabitch
spoil our picnic
Tr. Regina Alfarano
Whoever burns
me and, burning, reigs,
take this game.
One day, cherish my name.
Tr. Regina Alfarano, with revisions by Robert Creeley
moon
did you shine like this
over auschwitz?
Tr. Regina Alfarano, with revisions by Robert Creeley
let me vanish
let me melt
let me fall apart
until
after me
after us
after all
nothing but the charm
is left
Tr. Regina Alfarano
nothing the sun
could not explain
everything the moon
makes glamorous
no rain
fades this flower
Tr. Regina Alfarano, with revisions by Robert Creeley
a poem
nobody understands
is worthy of note
supreme dignity
of a wondering
boat
Tr. Dana Stevens, with revisions by Robert Creeley
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