Mantis 22 (Summer 2024)
dis.orientations
Maria da Cunha
O nevoeiro cresceu envolvendo a cidade
O nevoeiro cresceu envolvendo a cidade
Num manto pardacento: Eu continuo só:
Meus olhos cuidam ver, a baça claridade,
um monge carmelita a resurgir do pó.
Outro...mais outro ainda...animam-se as ruínas
Em profundo silencio, através das ogivas,
Eles passam talvez para rezar matinas
Co’a sombra do capuz nas faces pensativas.
Lá vai, humilde frade, o grande Condestável!
Não mais há de brandir a espada formidável!
Nos combates, não mais ele há de erguer a voz!
Sombras que deslisais numa brancura d’astro,
Não podeis entender-me, ó vultos de alabastro:
Cinco séculos vão passados sobre vos!
The fog grew enveloping the city
The fog grew enveloping the city
in a silvery mantle: I continue alone:
My eyes look carefully, the steamy clarity,
A Carmelite monk resurgent from the dust.
Another…but another entirely…animated the ruins
in profound silence, through ogival arches,
They took, perhaps, to praying matins,
With hood-shade on pensive faces.
There goes, humble friar, the great Captain!
No more will you brandish a formidable sword!
In battles, no more will he raise his voice!
Shadows that slide in a star’s whiteness,
cannot understand me, the alabaster figures;
five centuries go passing over you!
Translated from Portuguese by Bernardo Villela
MARIA DA CUNHA (October 19, 1872-January 10, 1917) was born in Lisbon to a well-to-family to a Brazilian mother and Spanish father. da Cunha was a poet and journalist. Her first book of poems was released in 1909, the preface written by Júlio Dantas boosted sales. A new edition with added poems was released in 1911. Her second volume, O Livro da Noite was released in 1915. Her lover, Virgínia Quaresma, was one of the first Portuguese people to be openly gay. There’s some speculation that their move to Brazil, Cunha had a teaching job and Quaresma to write for a periodical, was influenced by a desire for anonymity and to escape a homophobic environment. Cunha’s sudden death saw Quaresma return to Portugal and a bright talent gone too soon.
BERNARDO VILLELA has had poetry published by Entropy, Zoetic Press, and Bluepepper and Eldritch & Ether; and poetry translations in New Delta Review and AzonaL. You can read more about these and various other pursuits at https://linktr.ee/bernardovillela.