BRAZILIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION #4
BRAZILIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION #4
The biTTersweeT
THE
POET BOY
syllable
The
biTTersweeT
HENRIQUETA
LISBOA
Marcelo Mirisola
syllable
Marcelo Mirisola
THE POET BOY
HENRIQUETA LISBOA
Illustrated by Nelson Cruz | Translated by Hélcio Veiga Costa
Echo
Green parrot
let out a shrill scream.
Rock in sudden
anger, replied.
A great uproar
invaded the forest.
Thousands of parrots
screamed together
and rock echoed.
From all sides
strafing space
steely screams rained
and rained down.
Very piercing screams!
But no one died.
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THE POET BOY | HENRIQUETA LISBOA
Old Little Ox
Little ox of tired eyes
longing-eyed little ox
resting on folded legs
at a bend of the way.
The carts climbing the hill
(now little ox remembers)
squeaked — or was it a weeping?
The Four Winds
North wind
South wind
West wind
East wind.
Four barebacked
horses.
Four horses
with long manes,
with long tails,
avid nostrils
snorting in the air.
Four horses
which nobody tames
four horses
that come and go,
that never rest,
their wings and hooves
sweeping the skies.
Ownerless horses
without a motherland,
gypsy horses
lawless and masterless.
Four barebacked horses.
3
THE POET BOY | HENRIQUETA LISBOA
Time is a Thread
Time is a quite
frail thread.
A slender thread
that easily slips away.
Time is a thread.
Weave! Weave!
Bobbin laces
with gentleness
with a greater zeal
thick branches.
Knittings and nets
with more shrewdness.
Time is a thread
wich is worth so much.
Thick crowns
bear fruit.
Knittings and nets
catch fish.
Time is a thread
through fingers.
The thread slips
time is wasted.
There time goes
like a rag
thrown away at random!
But it is still time!
Free the colts
to the four winds,
send the serfs
from one pole to another,
surmount scarps,
sleep in the bushes,
come back with time
that has gone by!...
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THE POET BOY | HENRIQUETA LISBOA
THE BOOK
The Poet Boy
Henriqueta Lisboa
• Original title: O Menino Poeta
• ISBN: 978-85-7596-149-0
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Original Publisher:
Editora Peirópolis Ltda
• Number of pages: 88
• Total printing in Brazil: 5.000 copies
SYNOPSIS
The poet boy is a must-read book
for boys of all ages. The work of this
well-known and highly praised poet of
the state of Minas Gerais is a reference
in poetry for children in Brazil. The
search for the poet boy, translated by
Henriqueta, becomes the quest for
poetry itself. Poems made of playful
words and puns, of sound and silence,
as the writer revisits the imagery of
childhood.
TRANSLATIONS
Chosen Poems. Henriqueta Lisboa.
Translations by Hélcio Veiga Costa.
Eddal Editora e Distribuidora, s/d.
English.
Poèmes choisis. Henriqueta Lisboa Traduits par Véra Conradt. Editora São
Vicente.1974, 98 p. Belo Horizonte – MG.
French
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PRESS REVIEWS
Folha de São Paulo
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/
livrariadafolha/794729-versos-depoeta-henriqueta-lisboa-descobremcriancas-novas-a-cada-manha.shtml
O Globo
http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/prosa/
posts/2009/03/09/a-poesia-dehenriqueta-lisboa-167173.asp
AWARDS
Selected for the Project Support Learn
(FDE) – 2013 – 218.098 copies
Selected for the National School Library
Program (PNBE) – 2010 – 29.437 copies
Selected for the Reading Rooms
Programme / State Secretariat of
Education of São Paulo – 2009 – 7.948
copies
Selected for the Coordination of acquis
Municipal Libraries System (SMC /
MGSP) - 2009 - 151 copies
Selected for the FNLIJ´s selection 46ª
Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2009
Highly Commended by FNLIJ - Poetry
category - 2009
Award Book FNLIJ year - category
Poetry – 2009
Award “30 Best Children’s Books of the
Year” - 2009 edition - Crescer magazine
THE AUTHOR
THE POET BOY | HENRIQUETA LISBOA
Henriqueta Lisboa
Nelson Cruz
• Pen name: Henriqueta Lisboa
• Other books:
Oral literature for Childhood and
youth. Literatura oral para a infância e
a juventude, 2002, 200 pages – Editora
Peirópolis
Anthology of Portuguese poems for
Childhood and youth. Antologia de
poemas portugueses para a infância e
a juventude, 2005, 64 pages – Editora
Peirópolis
Fogo-fátuo (1925); Enternecimento
(1929); Velário (1936); Prisioneira da
noite (1941); O menino poeta (1943);
A face lívida (1945), to the memory of
Mario de Andrade, who died this year;
Flor da morte (1949); Madrinha Lua
(1952); Azul profundo (1955); Lírica
(1958); Montanha viva (1959); Além da
imagem (1963); Nova Lírica (1971); Belo
Horizonte bem querer (1972); O alvo
humano (1973); Reverberações (1976);
Miradouro e outros poemas (1976);
Celebração dos elementos: água, ar,
fogo, terra (1977); Pousada do ser
(1982) and Poesia Geral (1985), meeting
personally selected poems by the
authoress set of all the work, published
a week after her death.
Nelson Cruz is a Brazilian artist and
writer. He received Best Illustration
Hors-Concours Award (2003) by FNLIJ
for his illustrations in the first volume
of the Touch of Prose collection,
Conto de escola. Through Cosac
Naify, he also published O caso
do Saci (2004). In 2008, together
with illustrator Marilda Castanha, he
published through Cosac Naify the
collection Stories about history, for
which he wrote Dirceu e Marília, Chica
e João and Bárbara e Alvarenga.
THE TRANSLATOR
Hélcio Veiga Costa
PUBLICATION RIGHTS
Editora Peirópolis Ltda.
Rua Girassol, 310F – V. Madalena –
CEP 05433-000 – São Paulo - SP
55 11 3816-0699
www.editorapeiropolis.com.br
[email protected]
THE ILLUSTRATOR
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THE POET BOY | HENRIQUETA LISBOA
Machado de Assis – Literatura Brasileña en Traducción es una iniciativa de
la Fundación Biblioteca Nacional, con la coedicion de Itaú Cultural y Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Brasil. El objetivo de la revista es divulgar en
el mercado editorial internacional textos traducidos de autores brasileños.
Cada edición presenta veinte nuevas traducciones para acceso del público
especializado, con el objetivo de colaborar con la visibilidad de comercialización internacional de derechos de publicación de escritores brasileños. De
esta forma, la revista se suma a otras iniciativas de la Fundación Biblioteca
Nacional de apoyo a la difusión de la literatura brasileña, como el programa
de becas de traducción, el programa de residencia en Brasil para traductores
y el apoyo a las publicaciones hechas en los países de habla portuguesa.
MACHADO DE ASSIS MAGAZINE
Machado de Assis – Brazilian Literature in Translation is an initiative of Brazil’s
National Library, in conjunction with Itaú Cultural and the Ministry of External
Relations. Our objective is to provide the international publishing industry with
access to translated texts by Brazilian writers in an effort to boost their visibility
abroad and foster the sale of foreign rights to their work. Each edition presents
twenty new translations. The magazine is one of several National Library initiatives designed to make Brazilian literature more widely known, such as translation grants, translator residencies in Brazil and support for publications in other
Portuguese-speaking countries.
BRAZILIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
#6