É o nosso trabalho dizer agora que hão-de
renascer o capim-cidreira, o boldo e a hortelã
para os rins, os fígados, os intestinos da família
morta já pela metade, ainda que se espargira sal
sobre a terra dos quintais tomados pelo agiota,
e o dizer em ritmo propício à canção de ninar.
E que as mãos da vó quebrarão o pescoço
dos frangos caseiros para o pirão, que há-de
alimentar por dias as mulheres de resguardo
que ao dar à luz indenizaram a família por velórios,
mesmo que daquelas rugas restem só carpos
e metacarpos brancos de cálcio no jazigo do clã.
E que o vô morto voltará em sonho para ralhar
até a bandeira nacional mudar de cor
com estes desnaturados que não se cansam
de dar desgosto a seus antepassados
que cruzaram oceano não só para a desgraça
trocar de passaporte e vegetação ao fundo.
E é nosso trabalho dizer que os avós sequestrados
d'além mar hão-de alforriar-se em nossos corpos
e que os antepassados deste lado do Atlântico
hão-de reaver seus quinhões de terra preta,
e juntos, entre a hortelã, o boldo e o capim-cidreira,
de mão em mão as xícaras da saúde que nos elide.
Os afazeres domésticos
Ricardo Domeneck
Listen to the poem read in the original Portuguese by the poet:
Ricardo Domeneck was born in Bebedouro (São Paulo), Brazil, in 1977. He is a poet, short-fiction writer, and essayist. He has published six volumes of poetry: Carta aos anfíbios (2005), a cadela sem Logos (2007), Sons: Arranjo: Garganta (2009), Cigarros na cama (2011), Ciclo do amante substituível (2012), and Medir com as próprias mãos a febre (2015). In prose, he has published Manual para melodrama (2016). His poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in magazines in Brazil and abroad. He has performed his video and sound poetry in galleries and museums such as Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro), Museo Experimental El Eco (Mexico City), and Bozar (Brussels), and has prepared a billboard piece for the Biennial of the Americas 2013 (Denver). He has collaborated with Brazilian and German musicians such as Tetine, Markus Nikolaus (Lea Porcelain), Uli Buder (Akia), and Nelson Bell (Crooked Waves). A bilingual anthology of his poems was published in Germany with the title Körper: ein Handbuch (2013), translated by Odile Kennel, and in the Netherlands with the title Het Verzamelde Lichaam (2015), translated by Bart Vonck. His book Ciclo do amante substituível was published in Aníbal Cristobo’s translation by Kriller71 Ediciones (2014). Ricardo Domeneck lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Chris Daniels is an independent, self-taught (feral) translator of worldwide Lusophone poetry. He was born on Manhattan Island in 1956 and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980. He never went to college. His translations include: The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa and The Collected Poems of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando Pessoa, vol. 2 (both published by Shearsman Books; vol. 1 of Campos has been forthcoming for some time); and On the Shining Screen of the Eyelids by Josely Vianna Baptista (Manifest Press). His translations have been published widely in print and online in the US and elsewhere. He lives in Oakland.
