Two Poems

Abstract

what passed through the head of the violinist as he hurled toward his death pale against his black hair clutching his stradivarius in yesterday’s great air disaster do re mi I think of béla bartók I think of rita lee I think of the stradivarius and the sundry and various jobs I held to get here and now the turbine fails and now the cabin breaks in two and now the whole kit and kaboodle tumbles from the overhead compartments and I plummet too beautiful and pale my black head of hair my violin against my chest a passenger up ahead prays I just think do re mi I think about stravinski and the beard of klaus kinski and the nose of karabtchevsky and a poem by joseph brodsky I once read wholesome women, unfasten your seatbelts ’cause here comes the earth um dois três Two Poems Angélica Freitas photo: bri gipson 12 | World Literature Today family sells all family sells all a worn-out grandpa a lemon tree a dog blind in one eye family sells all for next to nothing a three-seat sofa three circular frames family sells all a dad in a tie who becomes unemployed and a mom growing plumper by his side family sells all a telephone number disconnected countless times a supermarket shopping cart family sells all a baptist housekeeper a surrealist cousin a swindling italian ancestry family sells all thirty turkey carcasses (from christmas) and the little ribbon they tied around junior’s ankle in the hospital family sells all the kids graduated dad went bankrupt he owes green to the bank of brasil super estate liquidation sale the house was grandpa’s but grandpa has one foot in the grave family sells all you know how it goes they net five hundred thousand each in the end junior will redo the swimming pool dad will open a shady business and pay for his worn-out father’s vila alpina cremation family sells all below market prices Translations from the Portuguese By Hilary Kaplan photo: renata freitas march–april 2012 | 13 Editorial note: From Rilke Shake (CosacNaify / 7Letras, 2007), copyright © 2007 by Angélica Freitas. English translation copyright © 2012 by Hilary Kaplan. Angélica Freitas (b. 1973) is the author of Rilke Shake (2007). Her second book of poems, as well as a graphic novel, Guadalupe, illustrated by Odyr Bernardi, are forthcoming in 2012. She was awarded a Programa Petrobras Cultural writing fellowship in 2009. Her poems have been translated and published in German, Spanish, Swedish, Romanian, and English. She co-edits the poetry journal Modo de Usar & Co. and lives in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Hilary Kaplan received a 2011 PEN Translation Fund grant for her translation of Rilke Shake. Her translations of contemporary Brazilian poetry are forthcoming in PEN America, Litro, Ratapallax, and elsewhere. She is completing her PhD in comparative literature at Brown University, where her research focuses on contemporary poetics and environmental culture. ...