sábado, 12 de novembro de 2022

History lesson in Hervás (first draft!)


 

Evening falls between mountains.

I walk the stone paved alleys, close my eyes to capture

The scented mixture of damp rock and wood burning stoves

As if there were oil lamps still glowing  on the streets

And sturdy donkeys and cattle on the ground floor of buildings,

their huddled bodies warming the upper abodes, some home to Jews,

 others to Christians, but equally lulled in the temporary silence

 of respite.  Our guide is Maria Sara  and  I am here to

translate for  others, these stories  repeated to children

And tourists,  to be  savored or forgotten. We conjure the next day: 

women stirring  cauldrons of broth,  smoking meats,

in the  upper reaches,  letting fumes out into the village , 

or youngsters running behind their elders, herding sheep out

into the hills beyond bridge and river.  Animal remnants

and aprons set out to dry. Incessant ringing of hooves

on cobblestones, and the strays who slip through narrow allows where 

a hefty soul or person with too many burdens can barely fit.

 We slip through sideways.


Tonight, I surprise myself, finding most of the words to pass on these tidbits ,

or stir gentle awe  with  tales of how once these peoples lived together

in peace.   I stumble, but have by my side smart friends:

They pick up the clues,  dredge up the phrases, evoke the chisel

or the pulley, the mending of a broken spoke, the juniper pulled up from an

orchard.  Adriana from Patagonia can read out the words in Hebrew or Ladino.

Sandra, with her architect's eye,  the signs of wear and repair.

Ours is a kindly bunch.  Entranced by a town, we nurture a thirst for knowing,  and the

Thickness of moonlight.  There has always been hardship.  And wounds that open and close

and reopen.  Exiles, inquisitions.  People who fall silent in the face of edicts, 

who pick up weapons for the wrong war.

Any war.





sexta-feira, 14 de outubro de 2022

Airport

 

I was looking for a quiet spot

But here you only get what you pay for 

And a comfortable chair, a place to stretch out your legs

Before or after the journey, it has all gotten pricey.

On the other side of the divide, the business suit crowd

chows down, some counting their calories,

others indulging. These are insatiable

 times. My friend says we keep steady

at the wheel because moving forward is the

spell of sleep  we've been cast into, or because

we are bound by our blood cells or our stories

to others  -  they deserve their chance. 

There is a fresh trail of tears along the highway.

I just figured out why my foot is hurting in time to my heart. 

I swallow my coffee,  imagine myself telling the server

                or even the pilot

 that none of this is the way we wanted it to be.

 Instead, I just count my change,

 pay the bill, mumble thanks, move on.  

Lucky me,  I still have cash  for the wings, 

or the wind on my sails.

sábado, 1 de outubro de 2022

RUINA (w.i.p)

 





































https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vYta9mNV0m2TWzxV0P--2Q8tfXF7NgnL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116745013077065511932&rtpof=true&sd=true









terça-feira, 27 de setembro de 2022

CARTA ABERTA AO CRIADOR/OPEN LETTER TO OUR CREATOR


Here you have it again:  working on the translation of this text by Fabio Flora*, and hoping to be able to take it to a reading soon!



Com todo o respeito, Chefia: bem que o Senhor podia aproveitar o domingo de Páscoa, as famílias reunidas, o clima ensolarado de recomeço e mudança para apertar aquele botão (o reset, fique bem claro) e reiniciar o sistema. Mais ou menos como Vossa Excelência fez quando mandou o dilúvio.

Só que desta vez, Patrão, sem o coxinha do Noé, sem aquela arca ecologicamente incorreta e sem essa de salvar só os casais héteros de cada espécie. Não pega bem. Não agrega valor ao Paraíso. Sugestão: deixe apenas três amebas, para ver se de um ménage nasce coisa melhor que o Homo bolsonaris gentilis – essa criatura que, dizem mas não acredito, foi feita à Sua imagem e semelhança.
Não me entenda mal, Eminência: se peço um replay em slow-motion da maior inundação de todos os tempos – e uma garoa de asteroides junto, só para garantir –, é porque andamos precisando muito de um reboot. Quem sabe com a página outra vez em branco nós, e aí incluo Vossa Senhoria, não escrevamos certo finalmente.
Sem tanta linha torta.

Um mundo sem glúten, sem hora para acordar, sem segundas-feiras, sem celulares nos cinemas, sem livros de autoajuda, sem frases bregas atribuídas a Clarice ou Machado, sem acento grave ou vírgula onde não deve, sem fumantes e bebuns, sem juros, sem tomates superfaturados, sem novelas ruins, sem filmes dublados, sem crise de fígado e dor de cabeça, sem humoristas sem graça, sem reaças, sem filas, sem hora extra e serão, sem guerras, sem canções cafonas para promover a paz, sem bandeirinhas míopes, sem PM de TPM, sem manchetes sensacionalistas, sem bundas de plástico, peitos de plástico, cérebros de plástico, corações de plástico – sem plástico, enfim.

Ah, e o mais importante: sem vergonha de dizer eu te amo durante o expediente. 
Mas com vergonha de levar gaita na cueca, com hora de ninar os filhos, com mais sextas de Carnaval, com celulares que toquem valsa, com mais sonhos e pés de valsa, com poesia nos muros (se eles insistirem em existir), com sujeito e predicado vivendo em concordância, com fumantes viciados em cachimbos da paz, com cerveja amanteigada nos botecos, com juras (de amor), com toda a horta em promoção, com novelas que valem a pena ver de novo, com filmes franceses nas periferias, com riso frouxo mesmo depois de um tropeção, com uma horinha a mais de sono, com o Messi no meu time, com policiais sem pimenta, com jornais bem-humorados.

E não nos esqueçamos, Vossa Magnificência, que isto é fundamental: com violinos ao fundo sempre que disserem eu te amo durante o expediente.
Sem mais por ora, me despeço aqui, ó Pai de Todos, Fura-Bolo e Mata-Piolho, desejando-Lhe uma Páscoa trufada de boas intenções e chocolates (sem glúten, lactose e açúcar, cem por cento cacau; que nem divindade da Sua catiguria pode brincar com o colesterol, o Tinhoso disfarçado de gordurinha). Tchau e bença.

* Texto publicado em 2014 no Pasmatório (http://pasmatorio.blogspot.com/). De lá para cá, permaneceu super atual. (Sem mais comentário...)



With all due respect, dear Chief:  perhaps you dear Lord could take advantage of this Easter Sunday, families gathered round the hearth, the sunny weather of rebirth and change, to press that button (the reset one, make no mistake!) and restart the whole system.  Kind of  like what Your Excellence did when you sent out the diluvium.

Only this time, Boss, let's try a go without that bigot, Noah, without that ecologically incorrect ark and that crap of saving only the hetero couples of each species.  It doesn´t go over very well. It adds no value to Paradise. A  suggestion: leave us just three amoebas, to see if from the ménage we get something better than that Homo bolsonaris gentilis,  that creature that they say - but I don´t  believe them - was made in your image and semblance.

Don't get me wrong, your Eminence: if I ask for a slow-motion replay of the greatest flood of all times - and a shower of asteroids together,  to take no chances - it is because we are in dire  need of a reboot. Who knows, with a blank page once again , we—and I include you, dear Lord, in this—can do a better job at the writing.  Finally. 
Without the crooked lines.  

A world without gluten, without a time to get up, without Mondays, without cell phones ringing at the movies, without self help books or corny phrases attributed to Clarice or Machado, without accent marks and commas where they shouldn't be, without smokers or drunkards, without interest, without overpriced tomatoes, without bad novels, dubbed movies, bad livers and headaches, dumb comedians,  fascists,  long lines, overtime; without wars and corny songs purportedly promoting peace, without myopic flags,  without a military unless demilitarized, without sensationalistic headlines, plastic butts, plastic tits, plastic brains, plastic hearts—with no  plastic, at all.

Ah and most importantly: to be able to say I love you, shamelessly,  during the work shift. But with shame enough to carry cash in our underwear, to have time to put our kids to bed, to have more Carnival Fridays, and cell phones that play waltzes, and more dreams and waltzing feet, and more poetry on the walls (if they don't all crumble), with subjects and predicates in agreement, more smokers hooked on peace pipes and buttery beer at the corner-bars, with oaths (of love) and special offers on all the vegetable gardens, good novels to read and French films showing on the outskirts of town, to always  know how to laugh even after screwing up, and get in an extra hour of sleep, have Messi on our team, police officers without pepper spray and newspapers with a hip sense of humor.

And let us not forget, Your Excellence, another essential:  violins in the background every time one says  I love you during the work shift.

Since  I've gone through the list, for now,  let me take my leave here, oh dear Father of Us All, Milk Spiller and Lice Killer, wishing You an Easter layered with good intentions and chocolates (no gluten, lactose or sugar and 100% pure chocolate; as no one of Your stature can play around with cholesterol, you little sneak)
  
Bye for now, and  god bless...


sexta-feira, 23 de setembro de 2022

Maria das Nuvens.




Many years ago, while I was living in NYC , I chanced upon a hard-covered copy of an English  translation of Maria Nephele, by Greek poet Odysseus Elytis,  in a Barnes & Noble sales basket.   I grabbed it up,  took it home and, finding it both enigmatic and intriguing, swore to someday do an “update”, reshaping the 'antiphonist' as another   female interlocutor,  of a different generation.  I finally got started on it several years ago, all the while  uneasy about what seemed to me a very bold venture.   I spent hours, days  poring over whatever lit crit I could find on Elytis and on Maria Nephele, yet  his poem, which still enthralls me, seems only partly decipherable.    Writing my own  "Maria das Nuvens" has reaffirmed my feeling  that I  understand its spirit,  although many nuances lie in a cultural and historical terrain in which I am a mere novice.  Since I am not at all convinced that I will find a venue to publish it - my few initial attempts have failed - I have decided to make it available here, through a link posted below, at the end of this excerpt. As usual, it remains a 'work-in-progress'.  And as usual, I welcome comments and suggestions.  



maria das nuvens

 

In my dream, yes.  In a great sleep which will come sometime,

full of light and warmth and little stone stairsteps.

Embracing, the children will pass in the streets just as in old

Italian movies. From everywhere you’ll hear songs and see

huge women on small balconies watering their flowers.

 

 

Who listened?  Who ever listened? Judges, priests,

 gendarmes, which is your country?

 

Elytis, Maria Nephele.

                              

Maria das Nuvens

 

i saw it with my own eyes.


the red antelopes came bounding


out into the streets, then stopped.


raising slender necks, they stretched


to catch a scent on the wind, tenderly


pawing the piles of debris. two small


children slipped out of the paint-cracked building,


took hiding behind an old station wagon,


in blue metallic sheaves of rust. two pairs of


dark eyes opened in awe. they had learned


to be silent.  i found a scrap of paper,


wrote everything down.


 

 

Antiphonist


when we first met i warned you

of the perils of the world, of

what it was like to come

back from the fields strewn with stubs

of trees and limbs. how the wind

pummelled the coastal night after

the last burst of light tapered into

a strange starless blackness.

you stand there, in your

futile efforts to look the facts

in the brutal pupil of their eyes, you,

a stubborn girl, wedded to the need

to search for beauty even

where so little may be left. 

 

animals move by a scent on the wind, while

life and death hover, human constructs.

 

we ignore what we choose to: what

nobody knows, everyone knows.

 

 

Maria das Nuvens

i was compelled to keep searching.

there was a spot on the beach where

two strangers pressed lips to lips. we

too indulged in gentle danger. far now

from the village but still a sense of doom

stuck to us, like tatters clinging to

 war- hardened bodies. broken shells

gouged the soles of my bare feet. the

seagulls around me were tame, came

begging.

 

 

Antiphonist

 

days step in slowly

one after another

as if offering a bit more time

to chart some new course,

as humanity bobs up and down

in the waters it has sullied -

the rubble, the entrails, the pieces

of plastic and fragments of metal,

and the wounded creatures of

the sea...


(if you'd like to read the rest, kindly follow this link:


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s4efLgtrzH3pWEngssqQ4UZfCOAaq7bN/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116745013077065511932&rtpof=true&sd=true

terça-feira, 30 de agosto de 2022

Ya no soy un caballo/ Now that I am no longer a horse


 


Ya no soy un caballo/ Now that I am no longer a horse


    Germaine Calderón      
English translation:  Miriam Adelman

There are signs
 duels of despair
hobos who wander
and grow with the night
with the aromas of the world,
boys like birds
in their shyness

The mountains, blue clad sailors
and we in our silence
seeking some flatland
some little town that is more
than this one that
limps on its three legs,
a shadow the size of water
and wine, incessant
at the hour of memory
when we collapse on the hillsides
where there is laughter
like a strange grimace
in the face of our obscene
exposure.
 
Today I have turned
My dreams inside out like a glove,
I have hung myself out to dry
my heart puzzled
by its own seams
its own flanks
its imminent size
and I am puzzled
to find myself looking
   so much
like a human.
 
I always thought I was a horse
people called me by my name
and I came
by gentle instinct
 
I loved the damp bark
the grains as tender as a gift
and I believed
in simple muscles
in the swiftness of air
in the impatient, runaway
phrase
 
In those days
trees were like
warriors
and greenness shot up
from the roots
and roots were fixed
nowhere
 
On those long rambles
days made their debut
and there was no other language
    for living
except in a way that was harsh
almost brutal
from the start
 
I knew that to be
was to give in -
to discipline
not to hunger
that these were the days of tales
of charmers and their flutes
 
Fire was the measure
to be well meant becoming
suddenly
from mane to nerves
a rebel
but always with the wide
rounded eyes of the docile
 
Today however
I discover myself
so much like all others 
so bounded in ideas
in labor
and just watching 
simply watching.


Hay signos
desesperanzas en duelo
algunos vagabundos
en crecimiento con la noche
con el olor del mundo
muchachos
como pájaros tímidos


Los montes marineros azules
nosotros silenciosos
buscando algún rellano
un pueblo más que este
insignificante en tres patas
una sombra del tamaño del agua
y un vino incesante
a la hora de la memoria
para caer tumbados en las lindes
donde se rie
com una extraña mueca
por nuestra desnudez obcena

Hoy he volteado
mi sueño como un guante
yo mismo
me he puesto a secar por el reverso
y el corazón se extraña
de su doblez
de su flanco
de su tamaño inminente
y yo me extraño
de ser tan parecido
a un hombre

Siempre pensé que era un caballo
las gentes me llamaban por mi nombre
y yo acudia
con un instinto manso

 
Amaba la corteza llovida
el grano tierno como dádiva
y creia 
en los músculos simples
en la rapidez del aire
en la oración impaciente
desbocada


Entonces
los árboles
semejaban guerreros
lo verde venia de las raíces
y las raíces no tenian
un lugar fijo

 En esas largas caminatas

se estrenaban los dias
y no habia outro lenguaje que vivir
de uma manera recia
desde el origen
casi brutalmente


Sabia que estar
era doblegarse
por disciplina
no por hambre
que era el tiempo de los mitos
de los encantadores
con sus flautass

La medida era el fuego
el bienestar residia
en ser
de pronto
de la crin a los nervios
rebelde
y sin embargo,
el ojo siempre
agrandado
por la mansedumbre

Pero hoy me descubro
tan igualmente a todos
limitado en ideas
en trabajo
y tan sólo
y tan sólo mirando

  

segunda-feira, 29 de agosto de 2022

Mekong

 

                for Marguerite Duras


In the dry season of the Mekong

It is up to us to carry the buckets,

Douse the cabin with water, make our

Own river to sluice away dust and scorpions.

We stack the chairs. Build a bridge

With the tables. Bathe the floors in

Yellow-foaming soap.  It is time to rejoice

Our mother tells us. We can dance barefoot, sing

And she will play her piano again

The only tune she knows

The only one we’ll keep

Forever.

Mais um poema de Rachida Madani (Tangier, 1951)

  Você não veio ao mundo para ver os seus ossos embranquecerem nas águas brancas de um rio Bou-reg-reg nem para contemplar a sua som...