Tradução de Eduardo Bueno e Leonardo Fróes
Correndo risco constante
de absurdo e morte
toda vez que atua em cima
das cabeças da audiência
o poeta sobe pela rima
como um acrobata
para a corda elevada que ele inventa
e equilibrado nos olhares acesos
sobre um mar de rostos
abre em seus passos uma via
para o outro lado do dia
fazendo além de entrechats
truques variados com os pés
e gestos teatrais da pesada
tudo sem jamais tomar uma
coisa qualquer
pelo que ela possa não ser
Pois ele é o super-realista
Que tem de forçosamente notar
A verdade tensa
Antes de ensaiar um passo ou postura
no seu avanço pressuposto
para o poleiro ainda mais alto
onde com gravidade a Beleza
espera para dar
seu salto mortal.
E ele um pequeno
homem chapliniano
que poderá ou não pegar
aquela forma eterna e bela
projetada no ar
vazio da existência.
* * * * *
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he’s the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Leia mais poemas dele (em inglês)
* * * * *
“A verdade não é um segredo de poucos”
porém
você pensaria que é
pela maneira como
os bibliotecários
e os adidos culturais e
especialmente os diretores de museu
agem
até parece que eles detêm o monopólio
da verdade
pelo ar
pomposo como avançam
de nariz empinado
aparentando que jamais
vão ao banheiro
ou coisa parecida
Mas se eu fosse você
não os condenaria
Eles asseguram que os Assuntos Espirituais
são melhor formulados em termos abstratos
e além do mais
perambular pelos museus sempre me deu
uma vontade louca de
“arriar as calças”
Sempre me sinto tão
constipado
nestas
altitudes elevadas.
* * * * *
O mundo é um lugar maravilhoso
onde nascer
se a gente não ligar que o tempo todo haja alguma
pessoa morrendo
ou talvez só passando
algum tempo à míngua
o que afinal não é tão ruim
se não for você
Oh o mundo é um lugar maravilhoso
onde nascer
se a gente não perder a cabeça
por haver cabeças mortas
nos lugares mais altos
ou então uma ou duas bombas
de vez em quando
nas suas faces reviradas
ou outras impropriedades tais
das quais nossa sociedade de Marca
e Nome é vítima
com seus homens de distinção
e seus homens de extinção
e seus padres
e outros patrulheiros
e suas várias segregações
e investigações congressionais
e outras constipações
de que nossa carne louca
herda alguma coisa…
* * * * *
And the Wright brothers said they thought they had invented
something that could make peace on earth
(if the wrong brothers didn’t get hold of it)
when their wonderful flying machine took off at Kitty Hawk
into the kingdom of birds but the parliament of birds was freaked out
by this man-made bird and fled to heaven
And then the famous Spirit of Saint Louis took off eastward and
flew across the Big Pond with Lindy at the controls in his leather
helmet and goggles hoping to sight the doves of peace but he did not
Even though he circled Versailles
And then the famous Yankee Clipper took off in the opposite
direction and flew across the terrific Pacific but the pacific doves
were frighted by this strange amphibious bird and hid in the orient sky
And then the famous Flying Fortress took off bristling with guns
and testosterone to make the world safe for peace and capitalism
but the birds of peace were nowhere to be found before or after Hiroshima
And so then clever men built bigger and faster flying machines and
these great man-made birds with jet plumage flew higher than any
real birds and seemed about to fly into the sun and melt their wings
and like Icarus crash to earth
And the Wright brothers were long forgotten in the high-flying
bombers that now began to visit their blessings on various Third
Worlds all the while claiming they were searching for doves of
peace
And they kept flying and flying until they flew right into the 21st
century and then one fine day a Third World struck back and
stormed the great planes and flew them straight into the beating
heart of Skyscraper America where there were no aviaries and no
parliaments of doves and in a blinding flash America became a part
of the scorched earth of the world
And a wind of ashes blows across the land
And for one long moment in eternity
There is chaos and despair
And buried loves and voices
Cries and whispers
Fill the air
Everywhere
And now our government
a bird with two right wings
flies on from zone to zone
while we go on having our little fun & games
at each election
as if it really mattered who the pilot is
of Air Force One
(They’re interchangeable, stupid!)
While this bird with two right wings
flies right on with its corporate flight crew
And this year its the Great Movie Cowboy in the cockpit
And next year its the great Bush pilot
And now its the Chameleon Kid
and he keeps changing the logo on his captains cap
and now its a donkey and now an elephant
and now some kind of donkephant
And now we recognize two of the crew
who took out a contract on America
and one is a certain gringo wretch
who’s busy monkeywrenching
crucial parts of the engine
and its life-support systems
and they got a big fat hose
to siphon off the fuel to privatized tanks
And all the while we just sit there
in the passenger seats
without parachutes
listening to all the news that’s fit to air
over the one-way PA system
about how the contract on America
is really good for us etcetera
As all the while the plane lumbers on
into its postmodern
manifest destiny
Publicado em: 02/02/15
De autoria: Eduardo Carli de Moraes
A Casa de Vidro Ponto de Cultura e Centro de Mídia