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Salomão, Paulo Leminski, Antonio Cicero, Maria Ester Maciel, 

Adriano Espínola 
 

Translations and Commentary: Charles A. Perrone 
 

 
Motive 

 
I sing because the instant exists; 
and my life is complete, I know it. 
I dwell not in sadness nor in bliss: 
I'm a poet. 
 
Brother of things one cannot seize, 
I feel neither torment nor delight. 
I'm passing through days and nights 
in the breeze. 
 
Should I tear down or should I grow? 
Should I undo or should I maintain? 
—no, I don't know. If I shall remain 
or if I'll go. 
 
I know I sing. And song is all things. 
Blood eternal have rhythms on wings. 
I know one day my voice will stay yore 
—nothing more. 
 
 

     Motif 
 
I sing because this moment exists; 
full and complete is my life. 
No happy summit nor sad abyss: 
A poet am I. 
 
Brother of all things fleeting, 
I've neither frowned nor grinned. 
I send a day and night greeting 
in the wind. 
 
Will I remain constant or will I stray? 
Will I be building or will I undo? 
I simply don't know. Don't know if I'll stay 
or pass through. 

 Perrone 85



 

 
I know that I sing. And song has it all. 
Rhythms with wings flow at its core. 
And one day I know I'll no longer call: 
—nothing more. 
 
 

     Motivo 
 
Eu canto porque o instante existe  
e a minha vida está completa. 
Não sou alegre nem sou triste: 
sou poeta.  
 
Irmão das coisas fugidias, 
não sinto gozo nem tormento. 
Atravesso noites e dias 
no vento. 
 
Se desmorono ou se edifico, 
se permaneço ou se desfaço, 
—não sei, não sei. Não sei se fico 
ou passo. 
 
Sei que canto. E a canção é tudo. 
Tem sangue eterno a asa ritmada. 
E um dia sei que estarei mudo: 
—mais nada. 
 
Cecília Meireles (1901-64) was an outstanding voice of the second 
generation of Brazilian Modernism. “Motivo” is one of her signature 
pieces; it is from Viagem (Voyage, 1939). My two renderings of the 
poem were prepared for the First International Meeting of Brazilian 
Women Writers, New York (2009). They were also presented by Prof. 
Sérgio Alcides during a lecture at Dahlem Humanities Center, Institut 
für Romanische Philologie, Lateinamerika-Institut; Peter Szondi-Institut 
für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literatur, Freie Universität Berlin, 
April 2014. 
  

86 Delos



 

     Cogito 

I am as I am 
an inalienable 
personal pronoun 
of the man I initiated 
in the bounds of the impossible 

  
I am as I am 
as for now 
no great abiding secrets 
no secret or biting news 
at this hour 

  
I am as I am 
present 
unlocked and indecent 
like a piece of myself 

  
I am as I am 
eyes that portend 
and I’m living in peace 
every hour of the end 
 
      Cogito 
 
eu sou como eu sou 
pronome 
pessoal intransferível 
do homem que iniciei 
na medida do impossível 

  
eu sou como eu sou 
agora 
sem grandes segredos dantes 
sem novos secretos dentes 
nesta hora 

  
eu sou como eu sou 
presente 
desferrolhado indecente 
feito um pedaço de mim 

  
eu sou como sou 
vidente 
e vivo tranquilamente 
todas as horas do fim. 

 

 Perrone 87



 

Torquato Neto (1944-72) was a poet, lyricist and journalist. He was 
one of the key voices of the now internationally-known Tropicália 
movement in MPB (Brazilian Popular Music). “Cogito” is his signature 
piece; it has appeared in his collected poems and numerous 
anthologies in Brazil. 
 
 
Ars Poética Operation Clean Up 

          I. 
Saudade* is a word 
Of the Portuguese language 
Whose spate and flow 
I am always against 
Saudade is a word 
To be banned 
From common usage 
From colloquial expression 
From the constitutional congress 
From dictionaries 
From onomasticons 
From epistolary practice 
From tombstones and epitaphs 
From geographical charts 
From popular songs 
From phantasmatic bodies 
From the map of affection 
From the shores of poetry 
Not to leave alluvial 
Deposits 
Here 
On this river bank. 

 
          II. 
Sudden 
Sur - reptitious anaconda 
Repressed is resplendent 
Meta-more so beautifies 
Self mortifies 
What seemed a brauna tree 
Perchance a boulder of tar 
 

SCINTILLATES 
Re – newed snake sheds the shell 
Of old skin 
          SIBILATES 

88 Delos



 

 
III. 

Saudade is a word: 
The sun of years and the salt of tears. 
    
*saudade: longing, yearning (for someone); "memory imbued with 
longing”; fond remembrance; nostalgia, homesickness. James  L. 
Taylor, Portuguese English Dictionary  
 
 
      I. 
SAUDADE é uma palavra 
Da língua portuguesa 
A cujo enxurro 
Sou sempre avesso 
SAUDADE é uma palavra 
A ser banida 
Do uso corrente 
Da expressão coloquial 
Da assembléia constituinte 
Do dicionário 
Da onomástica 
Do epistolário 
Da inscrição tumular 
Da carta geográfica 
Da canção popular 
Da fantasmática do corpo 
Do mapa da afeição 
Da praia do poema 
Pra não depositar 
Aluvião 
Aqui nesta ribeira. 

  
     II. 
Súbito 
Sub - reptícia sucurijuba 
A reprimida resplandece 
Se meta-formoseia 
Se mata 
O q parecia pau de braúna 
Quiçá pedra de breu 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Perrone 89



 

CINTILA 
 

Re-nova cobra rompe o ovo 
Da casca velha 
 

SIBILA 
 
III. 

SAUDADE é uma palavra 
O sol da idade e o sal das lágrimas. 
 
Waly Salomão (1943-2003) was a poet, lyricist and cultural agitator, 
originally from the state of Bahia. The present “Ars Poética Operation 
Clean Up” is a revised (1986) version of a periodical manifesto (1983). 
The epigraph—gloss of a word often cited as untranslatable and very 
frequent in song—was added by the translator to replace a citation 
from the Renaissance Portuguese poet, Sá de Miranda. 
 
 

     KAI  
 
Minimal temple, 

for a kind of smallish god, 
on guard for you here, 

instead of my painful self, 
my extreme vanguardian angel. 

 
What mask do your 

boastful sorrows fancy, 
what’s but vainglorious 

vacancy in your story. 
whoever might know. 

 
It’s quite enough, I find, 

the body drawing away 
the shadow left behind. 

 
     KAI  
 
Mínimo templo 

para um deus pequeno, 
aqui vos guarda, 

em vez da dor que peno, 
meu extremo anjo de vanguarda. 

 
De que máscara 

se gaba sua lástima, 

90 Delos



 

de que vaga 
se vangloria sua história, 

saiba quem saiba. 
 

A mim me basta 
a sombra que se deixa, 

o corpo que se afasta.  
 

Paulo Leminski (1944-89) is widely regarded as the leading voice of 
his generation of poets. He also composed several popular songs, one 
of which was recorded by superstar Caetano Veloso. “KAI” is from 
Distraídos Venceremos [Distracted we shall overcome] (1987). 
 
 

Keeping 
 

Keeping something is not to conceal it or leave it under lock and key. 
Nothing at all is meant for keeping in coffers. 

Offers in safes are being lost from sight. 
Keeping something is to look at, after, and up to it, 

to guard and regard it, that is, 
to illuminate it and be illuminated by it. 

Keeping something is to watch over it, that is, to remain vigilant for it, 
that is, to stay awake for it, that is, to be for its sake before and after. 

That is why one better keeps the flight of a bird 
Than birds without flights. 

That is why one writes, one speaks, one publishes, 
That is why one declares and declaims a poem: 

To keep it: 
So that it, in turn, may keep guarding its keepsakes: 

May keep whatever a poem keeps: 
That is the deal with poems: 

That keeping whatever wants keeping. 
 
 

Guardar  
 

Guardar uma coisa não é escondê-la ou trancá-la. 
Em cofre não se guarda coisa alguma. 

Em cofre perde-se a coisa à vista. 
Guardar uma coisa é olhá-la, fitá-la, mirá-la por 

admirá-la, isto é, iluminá-la ou ser por ela iluminado. 
Guardar uma coisa é vigiá-la, isto é, fazer vigília por 

ela, isto é, velar por ela, isto é, estar acordado por ela, 
isto é, estar por ela ou ser por ela. 

Por isso melhor se guarda o vôo de um pássaro 

 Perrone 91



 

Do que um pássaro sem vôos. 
Por isso se escreve, por isso se diz, por isso se publica, 

por isso se declara e declama um poema: Para guardá-lo: 
Para que ele, por sua vez, guarde o que guarda: 

Guarde o que quer que guarda um poema: 
Por isso o lance do poema: 

Por guardar-se o que se quer guardar. 
 

Antonio Cicero (b. 1945) is a distinguished essayist and poet from Rio 
de Janeiro, also known for his song lyrics. “Guardar” (1996) has been 
considered a stellar late-century lyric instance. He recited this poem 
and several others, some with explications, in the original and in 
translation, at a special session of the January 2016 convention of the 
Modern Language Association in Austin, Texas. The last part of the 
presentation was recorded and posted to the internet. The poem and 
translation had previously appeared in Austin within an installation at 
the MexicArt Gallery as part of an exhibition of Brazilian visual poetry 
(2002). The youtube video No. is: 927-g9A6Tz8. 
 

 
  Elegy 

 
There are mineral remains  
in your absence: something 
that without yet being here 
stays: a slice of crystal 

 
unseen but glistening: 
a transparent solidity, 
an elegance of stone, light 
of what’s lost and what’s not. 

 
There are musical remains 
in your absence: something  
secret and resonant alike: 

 
crystal syntonization 
syllables of yes in 
the silence of here and sound. 

 
 

  Elegia  
 
Há um vestígio mineral 
na sua ausência: algo 
que sem estar ainda 
fica: fatia de cristal 

92 Delos



 

 
que não se vê e brilha: 
solidez em transparência 
elegância de pedra, luz 
do que é perda e não. 

 
Há um vestígio musical 
na sua ausência: algo 
que é sigilo e ressonância: 

 
sintonia de cristais 
sílabas de sim no 
silêncio do som e do aqui. 
 
Maria Ester Maciel (b. 1963) is a college professor, scholar of film and 
letters, and creative writer from the state of Minas Gerais. An earlier 
version of this “Elegy” was presented at the 2009 Poetics Symposium 
at Northwestern University. 
 
 
   A Kapok Ceiba     
 
In the upper Amazon 
in vegetation so dense 
the silk-cotton tree’s on. 

 
Roots tabular flare 
as immense as harps with 
their strings taut and tense 

 
shooting out in pairs. 
Disguised as a bogeyman 
the poet now strikes them 

 
with his heels held square 
to bring close the sound 
of chiaroscuro melody 

 
in the afternoon found  
the lament of the earth and 
the vertiginous air 

 
when up there on high 
the storm can’t but roar 
as chainsaws on the ground. 

 
 

 Perrone 93



 

   A Sumaúna   

No alto amazonas 
entre matas densas 
a sumaúma assoma. 

 
Raízes tabulares 
imensas feito uma 
harpa de cordas tensas 

 
se lançam aos pares. 
O poeta disfarçado  
de curupira bate 

 
nelas os calcanhares 
pra fazer ressoar de  
perto a melodia 

 
clarescura da tarde  
o lamento da terra 
e a vertigem dos ares 

 
quando lá nas alturas 
ruge a tempestade 
e no chão a motosserra. 

 
  
Adriano Espínola (b. 1952) is from the Northeastern state of Ceará but 
has lived in Rio de Janeiro for thirty years, where he has established a 
reputation as one of the leading voices of his generation. His lyrical 
epic Taxi or Poem of Love in Transit appeared in translation in New 
York in 1992, and he has participated in many national and 
international anthologies. “A Sumaúma” is from 2010. 
 
 
Music and Poetry in Brazil: Ever since the Portuguese established 
themselves in the New World in the early sixteenth century, verse-
making has been associated with musical expression. The most 
prominent Baroque poet, Gregório de Matos, was also an 
accomplished troubadour. Numerous Romantic poets also penned 
song texts for national composers, as did several poets of the 
Modernist period. In the nineteen-sixties and beyond, a whole series of 
songwriters were known as poet-composers, like Bob Dylan in the 
USA, and numerous poets doubled as lyricists. Throughout the 
twentieth century, and into the twenty-first, poets explored musical 
themes and metaphors in measured forms and free verse. The present 
selection spans nearly eight decades and features poets / poet-lyricists 

94 Delos



 

from several different states of Brazil. The present selection could be 
nicely enhanced by the inclusion of such musically inclined poets as 
Ricardo Aleixo, Beatriz Azevedo, and Geraldo Carneiro, all of whom 
have spoken/performed in the United States. 
 

 Perrone 95




