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Poetry

From “Um País”

By Flávia Rocha
Translated from Portuguese by Idra Novey
Listen in original language
 
 

You undulate, soaked in iodine and sun
around the cold outline of a universe:
profound, public, oceanic, the mindset
of a country: a tank of pleasure, of collective
loss, shimmering in different grades of sepia
since sepia is the shade of fine sand, and sand
is the color here, and ocean-blue. The night
is at rock-height trying to pronounce
your name: hot, salty in my mouth. How to explain
the heat a language exhales—Latinity
radiating through its movements?
At the edge of the forest, the trees absorb light,
their branches heavy with it, shedding debris
on the grass below—                which purifies
transforms, dissolves, breathes for the world
while a cloud lingers
between the buildings like a massive
dream: drenched in cloud
you inhale its corners, the decanted fluids
entering your arteries
building nests in your body—
a fable locked
in the most colossal of cities.

© 2015 Flávia Rocha. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2016 by Idra Novey. All rights reserved.

English Portuguese (Original)

You undulate, soaked in iodine and sun
around the cold outline of a universe:
profound, public, oceanic, the mindset
of a country: a tank of pleasure, of collective
loss, shimmering in different grades of sepia
since sepia is the shade of fine sand, and sand
is the color here, and ocean-blue. The night
is at rock-height trying to pronounce
your name: hot, salty in my mouth. How to explain
the heat a language exhales—Latinity
radiating through its movements?
At the edge of the forest, the trees absorb light,
their branches heavy with it, shedding debris
on the grass below—                which purifies
transforms, dissolves, breathes for the world
while a cloud lingers
between the buildings like a massive
dream: drenched in cloud
you inhale its corners, the decanted fluids
entering your arteries
building nests in your body—
a fable locked
in the most colossal of cities.

© 2015 Flávia Rocha. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2016 by Idra Novey. All rights reserved.

De “Um país”

Você ondula, coberto de iodo e sol, margeando
a gota gelada de um universo:
profundo, público, oceânico,
o estado mental de um país: tanque de prazer,
de perdão coletivo, cintilando em tons diferentes
de sépia, porque sépia é a cor da areia fina, e areia
é a cor aqui, e azul-mar.           A noite
no alto da pedra, tentando pronunciar seu nome:
quente, salgado na boca. Como explicar o calor
que exala de uma língua, a latinidade
que se irradia nas passagens?
Nas encostas dos morros, a floresta
absorve luz em galhos pesados, depositando
resíduos no fundo da mata—purifica,transforma,
dissolve, respira para o mundo,
enquanto a nuvem permanece entre os prédios,
recostada como um sonho maciço:
encharcado em nuvem,
você sorve as beiradas, os fluidos decantados
que entram nas suas artérias
para construir ninhos no corpo—
fábula trancada
na mais massiva das cidades.

 

From Um país (Confraria do vento). © 2015 by Flávia Rocha. By arrangement with the author.

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