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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, Laurenço Mutarelli, and Antônio Prata contribute fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. 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
from “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
Immobile Bird.
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