Poemas [Poems] 1925-1929. Juiz de Fora: Dias Cardoso, 1930.
Relativity of the Beloved Woman
I like you with a brute force that I cannot quite understand.
I like you almost as I like myself.
But what a pity you cannot, too, be my daughter.
What a pity you cannot be my daughter, my sister and my mother, all at once.
História do Brasil. [History of Brazil] Rio de Janeiro: Ariel,1932.
I stay
I stay, alright,
If to all I give well.
Prepare the mulatas,
Stuff the turkeys,
Tell the bankers,
Suppress the showers,
Tune the guitars,
Warn Chalaça,
Ready the trolley,
I stay, but I will
Talk to the Marquess,
I will soon be back to the feast.
Speaking of food,
I stay, alright.
Tempo e eternidade. [Time and Eternity] Porto Alegre: Globo, 1935.
Filiation
I am of the Eternal race.
I was created at the beginning
And unfolded through many generations
Through space and time.
I feel I am above the flags,
Stumbling on heads and chiefs.
I walk on the sea, on the land and on the air
I am of the Eternal race.
Of the love that will unite all men:
Come to me, orphans of poetry,
Let us cry over a mutilated world.
O sinal de Deus. [The sign of God] Rio de Janeiro: Edição do autor, 1936.
Man and Woman
Since Adam the generations bring you to me.
I am your father – your son – your husband – your lover.
I am your oracle and your riddle.
Your priest and your victim.
Your tyrant and your slave.
To you I devote temples, wars, vengeances, History and the Ideal.
I dominate you and you smash me.
For you I would deny my God.
A poesia em pânico. [Poetry in Panic] Rio de Janeiro: Cooperativa Cultural Guanabara, 1937.
The Sphinx
O God
I was born to be deciphered by Thee.
With a foot in the limbo, my heart in the Venus star and my head in the church.
I wait for thy answer since the beginning of the world.
Thou, too, wast born for me:
With thy medallion on my neck, lest I forget my origin,
I pant and walk this desert.
The final word shall bloom from thy lips.
At least in the instant of my death.
O visionário. [The visionary] Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio, 1941.
Woman In Three Times
My mouth is in the present,
My gaze, in the past,
My womb is in the future.
My mouth is every night
In the loving mouth
Of my current husband,
My gaze is in the eyes
Of my old boyfriend,
My womb is in the future
Of my child’s little body.
As metamorfoses. [The metamorphoses] Rio de Janeiro: Ocidente, 1944.
Start of a Biography
I am the day and the night bird,
The bird that is a mix of flesh and legend,
In charge of bringing the food of poetry and music
To the dwellers of the road, the skyscraper and the cloud.
I am the bird made man that lives among you.
I feed you catastrophe and pure rhythm.
I bring with me the seed of God… and the sight of the flood.
Mundo enigma. [Enigma World] Porto Alegre: Globo, 1945.
Memories
[…]
Tattoos
…So that the invisible may manifest itself.
So that the clock may talk
And that the operating angels
May rest from the task
Of turning cruelty into tenderness.
O discípulo de Emaús. [The disciple of Emaús] Rio de Janeiro: Agir, 1945; 2.ed.1946.
The disciple of Emaús
“The difficult part is not finding the truth: it’s organizing it.”
Poesia liberdade. [Freedom poetry] Rio de Janeiro: Agir, 1947.
The Other Childhood
[…]
The boy who played games too
Would he truly be me? I believe not.
(We become children
When imagining the child we were not)
He was already another boy, he already thought,
Lighting me up with two moons
– One on his head.
Janela do Caos. [Window of Chaos] Paris: Imprimerie Union, 1949.
Tobias and the Angel
[…]
We will never be alone: birds and machines,
Vegetables marching, spirits unleashed,
Will always be our accomplices.
From the pale asphalt
Death rises.
I will never find you,
Goodbye, invisible world.
Contemplação de Ouro Preto. [Contemplation of Ouro Preto] Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura/Imprensa Nacional, 1954.
The Mountains of Ouro Preto
[…]
Relics of steadiness and doctrine,
Rude appetite of this eternal thing
Contained in the structure of Ouro Preto.
Poesias [Poetries] (1925-1955). Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio, 1959.
Dilatation
My daughter,
My body became bigger with your body.
My soul became bigger with your soul.
I was born again with your birth.
Siciliana. [Sicilian] Caltanissetta-Roma: Sciascia, 1959.
Sicilian Atmosphere
[…]
Sex explodes. Presages.
The god breathes up high:
So many women in black
Mourning their own youth.
O work, coarse life
To the man, horse of man,
And coarse to the horse.
Tempo espanhol. [Spanish time]. Lisbon: Morais Editora, 1959.
Numancia
Prefiguring Guernica
And the Spanish resistance,
A column is secured
Into once null space.
In the earth landscape remains
The harsh memory of hunger,
A lesson Spain receives
In it’s blood, and that consumes it.
Alberto Magnelli. Roma: Ediozioni dell’Ateneo, 1964.
“L’opera di Magnelli è quindi il resultato di um’alleanza tra la cultura mediterranea,italiana – ma propriamente fiorentina – e la scoula di Parigi, che si sviluppò all’insegna dell’internazionalità. Magnelli è um artista senza teorie.”
“The works of Magnelli are therefore the results of an union of the Italian Mediterranean culture – especially the Florentine culture – and the School of Paris, developed based on internationality. Magnelli is an artist with no theory.”
Italianissima (7 murilogrammi). Milan: Vanni Scheiwiller, 1965.
Calderara: pitture dal 1925 al 1965. Milan: All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, 1965.
A idade do serrote. [The age of the handsaw]. Rio de Janeiro: Sabiá, 1968.
Sebastiana
“[…] Sebastiana is crazy to travel to Minas Gerais, Mom says but Sebastiana, you live in Minas Gerais, is that so, I thought I lived in Juiz de Fora […]”
Convergência. [Convergence]. São Paulo: Duas Cidades, 1970.
Grafitti on a Wall in Rome
[…]
Eternity made so many Dedaluses
That it now loses track of space.
Searching man by man
Urbi et orbi
It looks for itself without its tunic:
Minimal. Finite. Ex.
[…]
Poliedro. [Polyhedron]. Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio, 1972.
Freedom
[…]
“Our small faith finds itself conditioned by a equally small imagination; we lack the prodigious imagination of saints.”
Retratos- relâmpago: 1ª série. [Flash-portraits: 1st series]. São Paulo: Conselho Estadual de Cultura, 1973.
Lichtenberg
“If people truly wished to tell of their dreams, then a man’s character could be better interpreted than by looking at his own face.”
Marrakech. Milan: All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, 1974.
Ipotesi. Org. by Luciana Stegagno Picchio. Milan: Guanda, 1977.
La Notte
Circondata di radiogrammofoni motociclette semafori
la notte non riesce a dormire / i suoi denti impazziti
stridono piú forte delle trombe strappate
ai pensieri di Mao in giro per le strade.
Transístor. Selection by the author and Maria da Saudade Cortesão Mendes. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1980.
“The absolute bird flies without wind, without day nor night.”
Janelas verdes (primeira parte). [Green Windows (first part)]. Illustrations by Vieira da Silva. Lisboa: Gallery 111, 1989.
The Algarve
“The Algarve is a large beach in Portugal, round and hot, with almond trees, cliffs, blue fish; here they make the most delicious and dreamy sweets of the world, in particular the Dom Rodrigo sweets, which evoke unique sweetness of the fierce Ximena.”
Carta geográfica. [Geographic map]. 1965-1967.
Fragments of Paris
“If Surrealism was not born in the cartesian Paris, it was defined here.”
Espaço espanhol. [Spanish space]. 1966-1969. Travel notes.
Madrid
“Spain finds itself torn between the bull (paganism) and the image of Christ (and the one of Virgin Mary). The Church is often alongside the bull.
Janelas verdes (segunda parte). [Green Windows (second part)]. 1970. Prosa.
Nuno Gonçalves
“The enigma becomes his law before, during, after the pannels. He touches himself, tries to guess himself, does not recognize himself as the same; but he believes in man.”
Retratos- relâmpago: 2ª série. [Flash-portraits: 2nd series]. 1973-1974.
Conversa portátil. [Mobile conversation]. 1971-1974. Miscelaneous texts in prose and verse.
A invenção do finito. 1960-1970.
Papiers. Originals in prose e verse, in French.
O sinal de Deus. [God’s sign]. Text from 1936 with corrections from 1956 of the Brazilian Studies Institute of USP (reedition).
Quatro textos evangélicos (O paralítico de Betsaida, As núpcias de Cana, O Cristo aclamado, Judas Iscariote). [Four protestant texts (The paralytic of Betsaida, Cana’s wedding night, The hailed Christ, Judas Iscariote)]. Published posthumously, in the magazine Letterature d’ America, Roma, in 1984.
O infinito íntimo. [The intimate infinite]. 1948-1953. Includes other smaller poetic texts.
