Poem of the Quotidian
Night falls so swiftly in this part of town
No one but you, our administrative head,
takes pleasure in such efficient service of the sun
Just a moment ago it seemed
properly housed and resident at the end of the street
You sir didn’t calculate all the daytime
that a carnival of light could offer everyone
I’ve never seen and I’ve been around
men washing their hands in the sunlight like today
housewives coming to fill with sun
great jars, jugs, basins, and other vessels
Never on so many feet
has the sun so humbly shone
It even drew one might say the children’s eyes
towards school and put new reflections
on the miserable windowpanes out back
Some would say the sun has gone too far
Some of the poor in this part of town
caught it on their knives, mixed it in with their bread
They ended up treating it like a neighbor
At this rate… It was true madness
The king of all stars turned accessible to everyone
he who normally greeted no one
Always the same indifferent
spectacle of light above our cares
we came we went we entered but we never saw
that incandescent constancy. Would anyone
dare to let a single ray
pierce through his life and illuminate his suffering?
But today the sun
died like anyone of us
The people here grew very sad
Never had night fallen so swiftly in this part of town
POEMA QUOTIDIANO
É tão depressa noite neste bairro
Nenhum outro porém senhor administrador
goza de tão eficiente serviço de sol
Ainda não há muito ele parecia
domiciliado e residente ao fim da rua
O senhor não calcula todo o dia
que festa de luz proporcionou a todos
Nunca vi e já tenho os meus anos
lavar a gente as mãos no sol como hoje
Donas de casa vieram encher de sol
cântaros alguidares e mais vasos domésticos
Nunca em tantos pés
assim humildemente brilhou
Orientou diz-se até os olhos das crianças
para a escola e pôs reflexos novos
nas míseras vidraças lá do fundo
Há quem diga que o sol foi longe demais
Algum dos pobres desta freguesia
apanhou-o na faca misturou-o no pão
Chegaram a tratá-lo por vizinho
Por este andar… Foi uma autêntica loucura
O astro-rei tornado acessível a todos
ele que ninguém habitualmente saudava
Sempre o mesmo indiferente
espectáculo de luz sobre os nossos cuidados
Íamos vínhamos entrávamos não víamos
aquela persistência rubra. Ousaria
alguém deixar um só daqueles raios
atravessar-lhe a vida iluminar-lhe as penas?
Mas hoje o sol
morreu como qualquer de nós
Ficou tão triste a gente destes sítios
Nunca foi tão depressa noite neste bairro
Translator: Alexis Levitin’s translations have appeared in well over two hundred literary magazines, including American Poetry Review, Partisan Review, Grand Street, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Kenyon Review, New Orleans Review and Catamaran. His thirty-four books include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words (both from New Directions). His most recent books are Salgado Maranhao’s Blood of the Sun (Milkweed Editions, 2012), Eugenio de Andrade’s The Art of Patience (Red Dragonfly Press, 2013), and Ana Minga’s Tobacco Dogs (Bitter Oleander Press, 2013).
