In the early days of my interests, I would go to bookstores and search for anything Brazilian. On one such occasion, I bought a bilingual Xeroxed book of Brazilian Poetry from the 1950′s – 1980′s and from it, I found the following poem.
Things of the Earth
by Ferriera Gullar
translated by WIlliam Jay Smith
All the things I speak of lie in the city
between heaven and earth.
All are things perishable
and eternal like your laughter
words of allegiance
my open hand
or the forgotten smell of hair
that returns
and kindles a sudden flame
in the heart of May.
All the things I speak of are of the flesh
like summer and salary.
Mortally inserted into time
dispersed like air
in the marketplace, in offices,
streets and hostelries.
They are things, all of them,
quotidian things, like mouths
and hands, dreams, strikes,
denunciations—
accidents of work and love. Things
talked about in the newspapers
at times so crude
at times so dark
that even poetry illuminates them with difficulty.
But in them I see you, new world,
pulsating,
still sobbing, still hopeful.
The original can be found here.
About the Author (written in 1983)
Ferreira Gullar, poet, playwright, essayist, art critic, and journalist, was born in 1930 in São Luis de Maranhão. In 1951 he moved to Rio. His first book The Bodily Struggle (A Luta Corporal) (1954) established his reputation as a poet who could write with precision about down-to-earth matters. Until 1962 he was in the forefront of the avant-garde. He then began to concentrate more seriously on social problems. An opponent of the military regime established in 1964, he went into exile in 1971 and returned to Brazil only in 1977. In that year he published his Dirty Poem (Poema Sujo), which celebrates every aspect of his native city. He now earns his living as an art critic and as a writer for television.
On his Portuguese-only official site (also where the link for Poema Sujo directs you), there is a nice feature where you can see Mr. Gullar’s favorite pieces and as a bonus, some are narrated by him.
