IMAGENS DO MUNDO FLUTUANTE
IMAGES OF THE FLOATING WORLD

Rivu

A água mede o tempo em reflexos vítreos. Mudez
de clepsidras, no sobrecéu ascendem (como anjos suspensos
numa casa barroca), e em presença de ausências o tempo
se distende. Uns seios de perfil, sono embalando
a rede, campânula encurvada pelas águas da chuva.

No horizonte invisível, dobras de anamorfoses;
sombras que se insinuam, a matéria mental.

Rivus

Water marks time in hyaline reflections. Muteness
of clepsydras, on the canopy they rise (angels hanging
in a baroque house); in the presence of absences time
swells. Breasts in profile, sleep rocks
the hammock, bellflower bows in the rain.

Anamorphic folds on the invisible horizon;
sidling shadows; the matter of mind.

Schisma

Cobre se refletindo a ouro-fio nos olhos:
sem pano nem cordame, os móbiles oscilam, barcos
sem rumo, a esmo (desertos), rio adentro
(no leito cambiante), sem remo ou vela
ao vento. Vogam no entremeio, rio afora,
no linde (os sonhos) — superfície.

Nuvens e água, pênseis, a ouro-fio nos olhos.
Inverso de mortalha, os lençóis correm em álveos:
os barcos têm velâmens.

Schisma

Copper reflecting its golden section before the eyes:
without cloth or rigging, the mobiles stir, boats
adrift, random (deserted), river within
(on the iridescing bed), neither oar nor sail
in the wind. They row midriver, downriver,
at the farthest reach (dream) — surface.

Cloud and water: pensile golden section before the eyes.
Shrouds invert, sheets course the riverbeds:
the boats, their sheets, their shrouds.

Reste

Um vento anima os panos e as cortinas oscilam,
fronhas de linho (sono) áspero quebradiço; o sol passeia
a casa (o rosto adormecido), e em velatura a luz
vai desenhando as coisas: tranças brancas no espelho,
relógios deslustrados, cascas apodrecendo em seus volteios
curvos, vidros ao rés do chão reverberando, réstias.
Filamentos dourados unem o alto e o baixo

— horizonte invisível, abraço em leito alvo:
velame de outros corpos na memória amorosa.

Restis

A wind quickens cloth and curtains quiver,
linen pillowslip (sleep), rough and friable; the sun
strolls through the house (the sleeping face) and, in glazing,
light draws white braids on the mirror,
tarnished clocks, drying peels their curling
vaults, rippling panes on the floor, twines.
Golden filaments link high and low

— invisible horizon, embrace on the pale riverbed:
other bodies’ velamen in amorous memory.

Velu

Lúcido pergaminho, pele argêntea, de prata
(bolsa d'água, placenta), nas raízes aéreas. A cera
e a polidez da pétala encoberta: brácteas
que se abrem (túnica) e desabrocham: filandras
e nervuras na placidez selvagem — flor
e acontecimento que se desdobra em flor.
(Velâmens, em camadas, evoluem no ar.)

A gravidez sem peso dos pecíolos no limbo.

Velum

Translucent vellum, skin argenteous, silver
(amnion, placenta), in aerial roots. Vernix
caseosa, polish of the enclosed petal: bracts
open (tunic) and unfasten: philanders,
nervures in wild placidity — flower
and event that unfolds into flower.
(Stratified sails evolve in the air.)

The weightless gravidity of petioles in limbo.


• — • — • — • — •

These four short poems take as their basic subject a trip in the Amazon Basin, where there are few roads and most people travel by boat. The poems have nothing to do with the Japanese Floating World, but:

bows in the rain: the Portuguese reads “encurvada pelas aguas da chuva”, “curved / bent / bowed by the water of the rain.” I worried about introducing an image of Asian courtesy into an Amazonian poem, but when I expressed my reservations to the poet, she responded with delight.

golden section: see On the Shining Screen of the Eyelids, Introduction, pg. 12.

vernix caseosa: cera (wax) in the original: colloquialism

Imagens do mundo flutuante was part of the exposition “Ruminantes”, by the Brazilian sculptor Eliane Prolik, in the Museu Alfredo Andersen, Curitiba, and in Galeria Valú Ória, São Paulo, in 1998. The section entitled Velum was dedicated to the Brazilian artist Jeanete Musatti, in response to her encaustics on canvas from the exposition “Objetos e pinturas” (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, 1999). The poem was first published in the literary journal Inimigo Rumor (Rio de Janeiro, 1999).

First posted by Berkeley Neo-Baroque Gang of One, 4.16.2006