18.2.07
Poemas favoritos LIV
Favorite poems LIV
Impasse
Paulo Leminski
Parece coisa da pedra,
alguma pedra preciosa,
vidro capaz de treva,
névoa capaz de prosa.
Pela pele, é lírio,
aquela pura delícia.
Mas, por ela, a vida,
a mancha horrível, desliza.
***
From A Farwell to English5
Michael Hartnett
I say farwell to English verse,
to those I found in English nets:
my Lorca holding out his arms
to love the beauty of his bullets,
Pasternak who outlived Stalin
and died because of lesser beasts;
to all the poets I have loved
from Wyatt to Robert Browning;
to Father Hopkins in his crowded grave
and to our bugbear Mr Yeats
who forced us into exile
on islands of bad verse.
Among my living friends
there is no poet I do not love
although some write
with bitterness in their hearts;
they are one art, our many arts.
Poets with progress
make no peace or pact.
The act of poetry
is a rebel act.
