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Brazil

August 2013

This month we showcase writing from Brazil. With the country’s current upheaval in the international spotlight, the writers here provide insight into this complex nation’s culture. Cristhiano Aguiar, Carol Bensimon, Horácio Costa, Orides Fontela, Angélica Freitas, Armando Freitas Filho, Rodrigo de Souza Leão, Vinicius Jatobá, Antônio Moura, Lourenço Mutarelli, and Antônio Prata contribute fiction, poetry, and essays. Guest editor Stefan Tobler provides an introduction and several beautiful translations. We thank the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional of Brazil and the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., for their generous support of the issue.

Introduction: Writing from Brazil

By Stefan Tobler

How should a writer respond to a country as full of variety and stories as Brazil?

Four Short Tales

By Antônio Prata

Employ hackers to adulterate the online versions of “Hamlet.”

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

Multilingual

Natanael

By Cristhiano Aguiar

For a diver, fear brings trouble.

Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

Multilingual

Becoming Ishmael

By Antônio Moura

I part the sea in two.

Translated from Portuguese by Stefan Tobler

Multilingual

Mermaid in Earnest

By Angélica Freitas

The mermaid treads on knives when she uses her feet.

Translated from Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan

Multilingual

From “All Dogs are Blue”

By Rodrigo de Souza Leão

I’ll either leave here dead—or something worse.

Translated from Portuguese by Zoë Perry

Sixteen Degrees on Avenida Paulista

By Horácio Costa

I saw the Paraguayan go astray in the night

Translated from Portuguese by Stefan Tobler

Multilingual

Underwater Snooker

By Carol Bensimon

Did you forget you’re supposed to slow down going downhill?

Translated from Portuguese by Anthony Doyle

Hiatus

By Armando Freitas Filho

Loyal tattoo, immune to the time of origin.

Translated from Portuguese by Stefan Tobler

Multilingual

from “O Cheiro do Ralo”

By Lourenço Mutarelli

I thought how I could spend a week just looking at her behind

Translated from Portuguese by Zoë Perry

Vigil

By Orides Fontela

Translated from Portuguese by Stefan Tobler

Multilingual

Father’s Chair

By Vinicius Jatobá

But only one chair was Father’s chair, the heir’s chair.

Translated from Portuguese by Jethro Soutar

Multilingual