Two Sonnets from Consecration of the Alphabet
by Leonor Scliar-Cabral,
translated by Alexis Levitin
This book consists of 22 rhymed sonnets, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The poems examine the development of the letters from their earliest pictorial representations, while also remarking on the historical context.
Hei
With arms uplifted towards the sky they pray,
exhaling rhythmic cadence with their breath.
Then drawing razor deep they cut away
both head and body, leaving arms bereft.
From the Ineffable their eyes now turn
and left and right all gaze upon their peers,
to find the final self they hope to earn:
and prayer settles in the human sphere.
The vertical turned horizontal now,
three strokes in parallel upon a line
that seal the borrowed record and allow
the voice to speak on Grecian soil: bacchants
who sow their vowels and consonants in time,
contrasted in their endless circle dance.
Tet
They stretch the skins of snakes upon their shields
and then they set a cross embedded in
the tight-drawn ring. A bulwark, fragile, thin,
a letter that the Decalogue concealed,
ignored, but now returning to be found
in Biblos and in Greece, from where it spread
to Northern Seas or hid itself instead
back in the Holy Land, a curve unbound,
like upraised, arching branches that still grieve
that Babylonian Captivity.
A breath that passes almost unperceived,
and, furtive, slips between the teeth and tongue,
rustling leaves, whispers of timidity.
Vertical gone. The cross undone.
HÊ
Em oração, os braços levantados
para o céu, na cadência o sopro espiram.
Cravaram a navalha e suprimiram
a cabeça e o corpo ajoelhado.
Os olhos baixam do Inominado
e à direita e à esquerda o outro miram,
buscando a identidade a que aspiram:
em profano o orar é transformado.
O vertical agora é horizontal,
três traços paralelos numa haste
que selam o registro umbilical
da voz em solo grego: consoantes
e vogais costuradas em contraste
nas cirandas infindas das bacantes.
TET
A pele das serpentes acoberta
os escudos e a cruz então entalha
na aliança circular. Frágil muralha,
a letra do Decálogo deserta,
esquecida, e retorna descoberta
em Biblos, no Egeu, de onde se espalha
até o Mar do Norte ou se agasalha
na Terra Santa, curvas entreabertas
como galhos erguidos que retraçam
o cativeiro de sóbolos rios.
Imperceptível sopro que perpassa
entre dentes e língua, intersticial,
como entre folhas tímido cicio:
apaga-se o traço vertical.
Consecration of the Alphabet, itself will be published this coming year bilingually, by Ben Yehuda Press.
From Rosa Alice Branco’s Dog Love
20.
They do not bite with force or deeply;[…]
on the contrary, they seem just to grab hold of the skin,
but in a way sufficiently vigorous to make the male howl in pain
The pups do with the father whatever they like,
putting the male in a ludicrous position.
And no retaliation since the pups are
untouchable. And they know how to take advantage and pleasure
from the situation. A friend’s wife would make fun of him
during the group’s evening meals and the more crestfallen
he was the more the woman zeroed in on him.
She wasn’t even pretty and her disdainful laughter would untune
the supper that would quickly disperse. The offspring learned
from the mother—things one learns quickly—
and the man dodged the sharp little bites
with a clumsy silence and a crappy feeling. If one day
these men were to plummet down who would escape unscathed
if they are the remote target of the hunt?
21.
There is a special category of unhappy people,
who, due to the bitter experiences they
have suffered throughout their life, have lost faith
in mankind and seek refuge in the presence of animals
She was unhappy, poor dear,
and she arranged for a cat that perching high and mighty
made her feel even more alone and crumpled.
She got rid of it and arranged for a dog, submissive
and a follower, my god how much she felt
loved and eagerly awaited when she left him
alone at home, gnawing a bone. She treated the dog like a soccer star
though without yachts and headlines
in the sporting news. When he took part in a dog show, he won
more caresses for not winning at all. After all, they were so much
alike! Only he gnawed at her slippers, but to have some entertainment
is healthy, only he played poker and sometimes would lose
at the races, only they were always down and out, and off went the house,
off went the sports car, but since the dog
was a mutt, the two of them starved to death together.
20.
Elas não mordem com força ou profundamente; (…)
pelo contrário, parecem só agarrar a pele, mas duma forma
suficientemente vigorosa para fazer o macho uivar de dor
As crias fazem do pai o que bem querem,
colocando o macho em situação caricata.
E nada de retaliações já que as crias são
invioláveis. E elas sabem tirar partido e gozar
com a situação. A mulher de um amigo dava-lhe
baile nos jantares de grupo e quanto mais ele
cabisbaixo mais a mulher perseguia o alvo.
Nem era bonita e o riso de desdém desafinava
o jantar que dispersava cedo. As crias aprenderam
com a mãe — coisas que se aprendem depressa —
e o homem esquivava-se às mordidelas finas
com um silêncio torpe e um sentimento rasca
a remoer os órgãos de fracasso. Se um dia
estes homens despencam quem escapará ileso
se eles são o alvo remoto da caçadeira?
21.
Há uma categoria especial de pessoas infelizes,
as quais, devido às experiências amargas que
sofreram ao longo da vida, perderam a fé
na humanidade e procuram refúgio junto dos bichos.
Sentia-se infeliz a coitadinha
e arranjou um gato que no poleiro da sua altivez
a fazia sentir mais só e amarfanhada.
Desfez-se dele e arranjou um cão seguidor
e submisso, ai meu deus como ela se sentia
amada e esperada em ânsias quando o deixava
a remoer em casa. Tratava o cão como uma estrela
de futebol embora sem iates e parangonas
nos jornais. Mas foi a concurso e ganhou
mais mimos por nada ganhar. Afinal era tão parecido
com ela! Só roía os chinelos, mas ter uma diversão
é saudável, só jogava póquer e às vezes perdia
nas corridas, só ficaram de tanga e foi-se a casa,
o carro desportivo, mas como o cão
era rafeiro ficaram os dois a passar fome.
At the Slightest Blazing by Luís Miguel Nava
translated by Alexis Levitin and Ricardo Vasconcelos
Maybe it would be better not to see each other
again, at the slightest blazing touch
of hands our flesh runs counter to our memory.
Hands are the crown of any body.
Of his I do not even know their
itinerary very well today, where the horizon
lets the sea flow free, returning now
to the heart of which it is a part.
It is still the sea, after all, that is seen
blossoming wherever he goes. Calling that
boy pounding surf,
the sky is torn apart around his shoulders.
AO MÍNIMO CLARÃO
Talvez seja melhor não nos voltarmos
a ver, ao mínimo clarão
das mãos a pele se desavém com a memória.
As mãos são de qualquer corpo a coroa.
Das dele já nem sequer o itinerário
sei hoje muito bem, onde o horizonte
se desata o mar agora
regressa ao coração de que faz parte.
Ainda é o mar contudo o que se vê
florir onde ele chegar. Chamando a esse
rapaz rebentação,
o céu rasga-se à volta dos seus ombros.
On Display by Luís Miguel Nava
translated by Alexis Levitin and Ricardo Vasconcelos
Inside my body, where it is possible to separate the various organs from the blood, anyone who contemplates it from their perspective can watch it rage against the windowpanes. To strip ourselves naked is nothing, we have to show our viscera, I thought, when I did it for the first time. I know someone for whom hunger serves as a lantern, for whom on certain occasions it grows gently luminous, and somehow, I feel that from deep within his spirit he strives to make the moon rise to the surface.
VITRINES
Por dentro do meu corpo, onde é possível separar do sangue os vários órgãos, a quem destes o contemple é dado vê-lo embravecer contra as vitrines. Desnudarmo-nos é pouco, há que mostrar as vísceras, pensei quando tal fiz pela primeira vez. Conheço alguém a quem a fome serve de lanterna, a quem em certas ocasiões ela se torna levemente luminosa, e de algum modo sinto que do fundo do seu espírito procura fazer vir a lua à superfície.
