Adélia Prado

Two poems by Adélia Prado (from Miserere) translated from Brazilian Portuguese by Ellen Doré Watson
February 25, 2022 Prado Adelia

Two poems by Adélia Prado (from Miserere) translated from Brazilian Portuguese by Ellen Doré Watson

OUR LADY OF PLEASURES 

On what might be called a street,
bright-colored row houses,
soapy blue kitchen runoff
under open sky,
and a gaggle of chickens
bedeviled by one handsome rooster.
If I knew how to paint,
I’d give you the crisp yet delicate greens,
the shivers of gold
filtering between branches.
The church is closed.
Having nothing more to do
if not to hope a certain chicken
might become my lunch,
my prayer is to stretch out on a warm stone,
pleased and easy as a lizard in the sun.

 
 

NOSSA SENHORA DOS PRAZERES   

No que se pode chamar de rua,
em cores vivas, casas geminadas,
um esgoto de cozinha a céu aberto,
a água de sabão meio azulada,
muitas galinhas
e um galo formoso arreliando.
Se soubesse pintar informaria
de um verde quebradiço, as hortaliças
e pequenas coisas douradas esvoaçantes,
luz entre ramagens.
A igreja está fechada.
Não tendo mais o que fazer
a não ser esperar
que uma certa galinha vire meu almoço,
minha reza é deitar na pedra quente,
satisfeita e feliz como lagartixa no sol.

 

 

SATAN’S MARKET

The fish eye me
from their bloody slabs.
The fruit is immodest.
Vendors end-to-end,
I want to flee,
distressed by the tomatoes’
indecent splendor.
I buy two turnips and eat them raw,
like an ascetic in his garden.
It’s not virtue
but pride disguised as joy
the devil sold me
in his tent of lies.

 

FEIRA DE SÃO TANAZ

Os peixes me olham
de suas postas sangrentas.
Falta modéstia as frutas.
De ponta a ponta, barracas,
quero fugir dali
acossada pelos tomates
de inadequado esplendor.
Compro dois nabos para comê-los crus,
feito um eremita em sua horta.
Não por virtude,
por orgulho talvez travestido do júbilo
que me vendeu o diabo
em sua tenda de enganos.

 

 

Ranked by the National Library as Brazil’s fourth most important living poet, Adélia Prado is praised both in literary circles and the mainstream media.  Veja (Brazil’s Newsweek) praised her as “a writer of rare brilliance and invincible simplicity.” Her books in English include The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado was (Wesleyan in 1990) and Ex-Voto (Tupelo Press, 2013), both translated by Ellen Doré Watson.