Poem
Gastão Cruz
COOL LEMONS
Each time we came to the houseof our long dead great grandparents
who had chosen for it
a place in the purity
of absolute earth
as
spring was just beginning
and grandmother would greet the swallows
as if they were the same
returning from the previous year
and the buzzing of the beetles would make me
feel that something was changing
in my days and summer
would be rising and the afternoon heat would swell
my adolescent sex
and before going back to shaking down the almonds
my young uncle in a silence of sweat would be lying asleep
each time we would see
cool lemons
dropping from their tree
© Translation: 2007, Alexis Levitin
OS LIMÕES FRIOS
OS LIMÕES FRIOS
De cada vez que vínhamos à casados bisavós longinquamente mortos
que para ela tinham escolhido
um lugar na pureza
da terra absoluta
quando
principiava a primavera
e a avó saudava as andorinhas
como se no regresso
do ano anterior as mesmas fossem
e o sopro dos besouros me fazia
sentir que qualquer coisa novamente mudara
nos meus dias e o verão
subia e o calor da tarde intumescia
o sexo adolescente
e antes de regressar ao varejo da amêndoa
num silêncio de suor o jovem tio dormia
de cada vez nós víamos
da árvore desprenderem-se
os limões frios
© 2002, Gastão Cruz
From: Rua de Portugal
Publisher: Assírio & Alvim, Lisboa
From: Rua de Portugal
Publisher: Assírio & Alvim, Lisboa
Poems
Poems of Gastão Cruz
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COOL LEMONS
Each time we came to the houseof our long dead great grandparents
who had chosen for it
a place in the purity
of absolute earth
as
spring was just beginning
and grandmother would greet the swallows
as if they were the same
returning from the previous year
and the buzzing of the beetles would make me
feel that something was changing
in my days and summer
would be rising and the afternoon heat would swell
my adolescent sex
and before going back to shaking down the almonds
my young uncle in a silence of sweat would be lying asleep
each time we would see
cool lemons
dropping from their tree
© 2007, Alexis Levitin
From: Rua de Portugal
From: Rua de Portugal
COOL LEMONS
Each time we came to the houseof our long dead great grandparents
who had chosen for it
a place in the purity
of absolute earth
as
spring was just beginning
and grandmother would greet the swallows
as if they were the same
returning from the previous year
and the buzzing of the beetles would make me
feel that something was changing
in my days and summer
would be rising and the afternoon heat would swell
my adolescent sex
and before going back to shaking down the almonds
my young uncle in a silence of sweat would be lying asleep
each time we would see
cool lemons
dropping from their tree
© 2007, Alexis Levitin
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