Five poems from All Poetry by Paulo Leminski
from:
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- forty clicks in curitiba (1976)
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suddenly I discovered
I don’t say America or gunpowder
work of so many
an account in the red
standing on tiptoes
besides the noble exercise
the wisest measure read
in life to get ahead
from:
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- caprices & re-laxities (1983)
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when we’re scared
and grieving
when we’re thirsty
and water’s lacking
you
only you
whom we follow
until it’s finally
in check
or in flames
any sound
any at all
can be your voice
your zoom-zoom-humming
frightful edge
in the shape
of a sudden hedge
loosened pebble
deviled sky
could be your shade
or your homecoming
from:
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III. distracted we shall overcome (1987)
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minifesto
hail the rage of this night
the hefty splinter sudden fury
crazy beast cow let loose
red-haired light against the day
so much & so late you’ve awoken
may the calm of this afternoon
simply perish in gold
at last, more silk
this death, this fraud,
when prosperous
may it live and die above all
this day, vile metal,
deaf, dumb and blind,
in it was all and, if being were all,
i can’t know everything
even if springtime will know
or if one day i’ll know that
neither my knowing nor being just so
hai
Hark, it is born complete
and at death it dies a germ,
this desire, illiterate,
to know my ruling concerns,
knowing what my self does
so that I might be who I was,
behold what’s born a success
and goes on to grow even less.
***
ku
Minimal temple
for a kind of smallish god,
on guard for you here,
instead of my grieving so odd,
my extreme vanguardian angel.
What masks do your
boastful sorrows fancy,
what’s but vainglorious
vacancy in your story,
whoever may know.
It’s enough, I find,
the body drawing away
the shadow left behind.
***
from:
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- la vie en close (1991)
****************************
***
tuning in for haste and presage
I used to write in space.
Today, I graph in time,
on skin, on palms, on petals,
light of the instant.
I sound in doubts that shuffle
the ones who shout silence
apart from scandals that shuttle,
in time, distance, squares,
that pause, yes paws, take
to go from mishap to spasms.
Behold the voice, the god, the speech,
the light that was lit in the house yet
no longer fits in rooms within reach.
ALL POETRY by Paulo Leminski. Complete poems in English. New London Librarium https://nllibrarium.com/ . In the Brazilian arts of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, Paulo Leminski (1944-1989) stands as a singular and widely celebrated figure. His complete poems (2013) became the best seller in all the land (for books other than non-fiction), quite a rare achievement for a volume of poetry. Nine years out it has sold some 200, 000 copies. It is a distinct pleasure to bring a full translation of the Portuguese original to an
Anglophone public. Leminski also wrote songs (words + music), lyrics, experimental narrative, biographies, and creative essays. He was a polyglot translator, tutor-teacher, advertising man, and martial arts master. All these endeavors are reflected in his multi-faceted poetry. Leminski the poet promotes an encounter between opposites: rigor and emotion, erudition and lightness, avant-garde and convention. Reconciling tight formal construction and a truly genuine colloquialism, he was fully aware of the best in poetry from the West and the East. He embodied a frontier where "cultured" and "pop,"super-concentrated and thinner quotidian material, could transit, legitimately or as contraband. Existential and love lyric, haiku, visual effects, the so-called "joke poem," meta-poetics, slogans, songs, nothing escaped the “rogue samurai.” All Poetry is a true adventure—for the intellect and the senses.
Poemas publicados aqui com expressa autorização de Áurea Leminski, em e-mail a Charles Perrone.