BRAZILIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION #2
POEMS
RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
POEMS
RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
Translated by Chris Daniels
FLEETING
Passage through a landscape,
a place of where, yesterday, and when,
how many words are still missing
in a mouth full of images.
The other is the one left on the margin,
on the fright of a pronoun,
on the body of a slow wind,
the other is like a hunger,
a drifting feather, distant, or almost.
Lost in its own voyage,
a bottle with its message,
a stare enduring on a flower,
nameless, secreted, gone wild.
Exile, water one drank on a train,
a procrastinated party, a play over, vertigo,
the mind always on some one,
I other, I all, I none.
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POEMS | RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
WRITTEN IN A HOTEL
What makes us write
Even while time, the mind’s writing,
Denies that is there to entertain
Until time closes, until light abridges.
The first gesture that detonates it
Is the echo of the word that devours it,
Bones and stuffing on exhibit as it
Comes, of its own impulse the master.
To confuse the registers,
A light in a room announces itself.
And, to become even more lucid,
A distracted hand writes us. And stops.
ZEITGEIST
Knocking out celebrities disguised as penguins
Monitoring the hoard of transactions and the tricks of climbers
Snaking between stairways nailed with citations
Kicking twilight’s bucket with dawn’s baby inside
Stepping up strong to a showdown with lies, treading on calumny’s corns
Accruing stocks in patience and pederast informers
Pinching salon-tanned folk made of fiberglass and ultra-high def pixels
Pulling marketers by the ear, taking the millionaire bishop by the scruff of the neck
Showing his catalog of kung-fu moves to web designers
Terrifying fashion editors with crucifixes made of shit
Heading for a knockdown brawl at the florist’s
Shivving the morning and good intentions with her sharp dagger
Pulverizing manipulators of the genome and chip-injected models
Giving the third degree to the corrupted files of the justice department
Assaulting metaphysical popcorn vendors and weekend-artist bankers
Passing out acid lollipops to literary critics
Blowing up the mouth of reason with inconsequential denunciations
Sweetly choking the life out of the evening charged with video cameras & trance music
Preaching fiscal irresponsibility and anthrax for all
Rifling through the idées fixes-crammed mall with a cry of jihad
The human bomb walks into the poem.
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POEMS | RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
The books
Visibilia – Polivox - Nômada
Rodrigo Garcia Lopes
• Original title: Visibilia
• ISBN: 85-89485-40-4
• Number of pages: 95
• Original publication house: Travessa
dos Editores
• Publication year: 2004
• Original title: Polivox
• ISBN: 9788588338081
• Publication year: 2002
• Original publishing house: Azougue
Editorial
• Number of pages: 154
• Total printing in Brazil: 1.000 copies
• Original title: Nômada
• ISBN: 85-98271-09-8
• Publication year: 2004
• Original publishing house: Lamparina
• Number of pages: 166
• Total printing in Brazil: 2000 copies
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POEMS | RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
SYNOPSIS
In Visibilia, *Polivox*, and *Nomad*,
poet, composer, and translator
Rodrigo Garcia Lopes expands the
range of contemporary Brazilian
poetry, practicing a polyphonic
poetics, bringing a wide variety of
styles, experiments, and establishing
a critical dialogue with other cultures.
Back in 1985, Brazilian poet Paulo
Leminski (1944-1989) called Garcia
Lopes “one of the most eminent
poets from the new generation”. His
poems have been widely published
and anthologized, including in *Os
Cem Melhores Poemas Brasileiros do
Século 20* [The 100 Best Brazilian
Poems of the Twentieth Century].
Press Reviews
http://www.jornaldepoesia.jor.
br/1aseffrin01.html
http://www.elsonfroes.com.br/rod2.htm
http://www.revistazunai.com/ensaios/
polivox_o_imperio_transitorio.html
http://www.revista.agulha.nom.br/
rgarcia02.html
http://www.germinaliteratura.com.br/
blog_estante19.htm
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/
ilustrad/fq3107200407.htm
The author
Rodrigo Garcia Lopes
• Other books:
Solarium (Iluminuras, 1994);
1.000 copies
Poemas selecionados (Atrito, 2001);
1.000 copies
Poemas Escolhidos (Centro Cultural
São Paulo, 2012); 1.000 copies
• Author’s webpages:
http://rgarcialopes.wix.com/site and
www.estudiorealidade.blogspot.com
The translator
Chris Daniels
Chris Daniels lives in Berkeley, CA, USA.
His translations include: The Collected
Poems of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando
Pessoa and The Collected Poems
of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando
Pessoa, vol. 2 (both published by
Shearsman Books); On the Shining
Screen of the Eyelids by Josely Vianna
Baptista (Manifest Press).
publication rights
For Visibilia
Fabio Campana
TRAVESSA DOS EDITORES. Address: Av. Desembargador Hugo
Simas, nº 1570, CEP 80520-250 —
Curitiba — Paraná
Phone: 55 + 41 + 3079-9997
E-mail: [email protected]
Agent’s webpage:
www.travessadoseditores.com.br
For Polivox
Sergio Cohn
Azougue Editorial
R. Jardim Botânico, 674 / sl. 605 -
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POEMS | RODRIGO GARCIA LOPES
Jardim Botânico
Cep: 22461-000 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
Tels: 55 + 21 + 2259-7712 /
55 + 21+ 3114-6744
E-mail: [email protected]
Agent’s webpage:
www.azougue.com.br
For Nômada
Rodrigo Garcia Lopes
Address: R. Alagoas 1690, ap 1204,
CEP 86020-430, Londrina (PR), Brazil
Phone: 55 + 43 + 43 33222115
E-mail: [email protected]
Agent’s webpage:
http://rgarcialopes.wix.com/site