Poem
Luís Quintais
A CERTAIN INNOCENCE
Birds devour the garbage.Gluttony makes them scramble,
contriving ambushes, machinations
which the soul has no part in.
Their wings go flap flap flap
in the black plastic. You stop.
Something makes you observe.
With aphorisms you sanctify
the reasons of those who despair.
What does poetry do?
It redeems and redeems and redeems
like those wings thrashing
the black plastic, flap flap flap.
You sanctify the reasons
of those who despair,
the anguishing implications
of the imagination, the world
going out like the light
in the room of childhood,
thrashing the sumptuous plastic,
all that you turned your back on
and that doesn’t demand to exist.
What does poetry do?
It redeems certain types of things
through a certain type of words a certain
type of wings flap flap flap a certain type
of desperate reasons.
© Translation: 2006, Richard Zenith
Uma inocência
Uma inocência
Aves devoram o lixo.Debatem-se sob o peso da gula
investindo ciladas, disposições
de onde se isenta a alma.
Flap, flap, flap, fazem asas
no negro plástico. Tu paras.
Por vontade alheia observas.
Por aforismos sagras
as razões dos que desesperam.
O que faz a poesia?
Remir e remir e remir
como as asas espancando
o negro plástico, flap, flap, flap.
Sagras as razões
dos que desesperam,
as implicações disfóricas
da imaginação, o mundo
extinguindo-se como a luz
do quarto de infância,
o sumptuoso plástico espancado,
aquilo a que viraste costas
e que não teima existir.
O que faz a poesia?
Remir por certo tipo de palavras
certo tipo de coisas certo tipo
de asas flap flap flap certo tipo
de razões desesperadas.
© 2002, Luís Quintais
From: Angst
Publisher: Edições Cotovia, Lisbon
From: Angst
Publisher: Edições Cotovia, Lisbon
Poems
Poems of Luís Quintais
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A CERTAIN INNOCENCE
Birds devour the garbage.Gluttony makes them scramble,
contriving ambushes, machinations
which the soul has no part in.
Their wings go flap flap flap
in the black plastic. You stop.
Something makes you observe.
With aphorisms you sanctify
the reasons of those who despair.
What does poetry do?
It redeems and redeems and redeems
like those wings thrashing
the black plastic, flap flap flap.
You sanctify the reasons
of those who despair,
the anguishing implications
of the imagination, the world
going out like the light
in the room of childhood,
thrashing the sumptuous plastic,
all that you turned your back on
and that doesn’t demand to exist.
What does poetry do?
It redeems certain types of things
through a certain type of words a certain
type of wings flap flap flap a certain type
of desperate reasons.
© 2006, Richard Zenith
From: Angst
From: Angst
A CERTAIN INNOCENCE
Birds devour the garbage.Gluttony makes them scramble,
contriving ambushes, machinations
which the soul has no part in.
Their wings go flap flap flap
in the black plastic. You stop.
Something makes you observe.
With aphorisms you sanctify
the reasons of those who despair.
What does poetry do?
It redeems and redeems and redeems
like those wings thrashing
the black plastic, flap flap flap.
You sanctify the reasons
of those who despair,
the anguishing implications
of the imagination, the world
going out like the light
in the room of childhood,
thrashing the sumptuous plastic,
all that you turned your back on
and that doesn’t demand to exist.
What does poetry do?
It redeems certain types of things
through a certain type of words a certain
type of wings flap flap flap a certain type
of desperate reasons.
© 2006, Richard Zenith
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