simone homem de mello

SIMONE HOMEM DE MELLO

FACING THE SUNLESS DEAD
(OUTRO ÓRFICO)

Retornou
do Orco,
como raros,
a prenunciar
o que a morte
oculta.

Em vão, ela
quis selar
seus olhos,
eclipsá-los,
a bálsamo
cegá-lo.
Mas ele mirou

Perfurou,
com olhos
argutos,
“o rombo
no tecido
do espaço”
– e entreluziu.

Fáustico, voltou-
se, viu-a
no véo, ele,
no meio do
vórtice-vertigo.

Só, ele

retornou
do negro
Orco com o
branco koan
aos cegos:
um cristal
de neve
(r more)

 

FACING THE SUNLESS DEAD
(OUTRO ÓRFICO)

Returned
from Orkon
the rare ones,
announcing
what death
hides.

In vain, she
wanted to seal
his eyes,
to cloak them,
with balm
to blind him
but he aimed

and Pierced
with sharp
“eyes,
the gap
on the fabric
of space”
– and shone in between.

Faustic, he turned him-
self, saw her
in the void, he,
amid the
vertigo-vortex

Only, he

returned
from the dark
Orkon with the
white koan
to the blind:
a crystal
of snow
(-nada)

 

RUÍDO

Conchas dispersas
pelo mar de muros
ecoam outro outono

O raso das antenas
capta em parábola
a mensagem elíptica

Empoçada no côncavo
a mesma luz rasteira varre-ruas
infiltra-frestas agora transmite

Fora do ar
a tela alterna faixas
crespas ondas tecem
o marulho teledifuso

Coados fatos, feitos e ditos
a concha colada ao ouvido
escoa um silêncio rarefeito

Incide ou-
tonal emite
um sol sem zênite

 

NOISE

Scattered seashells
through the sea of walls
echo another fall

The antennae’s shallowness
captures in parabolic
the elliptic message

Buried in the concave
the same shallow street-sweeping
crack-invading shallow light now relays

Out of broadcast
the screen alternates bands
crumpled waves weave
the telescattered blast

Filtered facts, deeds and speeches
the shell stuck beside the ear
leaks a rarefied silence

Affects au-
tumnal emitting
a sun without a zenith

 

DOS TERRITÓRIOS
(UM ROTEIRO)

Prestes a romper
o cerco,
não mais contra-
cenar com seus
senos e co-
cientes.

Sem pensar
duas vezes, dis-
pensar sentidos
e sentinelas, re-
baixar a guarda
de fronteiras,
proscrevé-la.

Abolir alfândegas
clãs e destinos.

Sem prós e pós-
tumos túmulos,
decepar a rosa
dos rumos,
dissipar ventos
(oito deles),
despir-se de
pares e dispares

Minar
a margem
(terceira)
de um rio
anônimo

Extra-
ditá-lo.

 

FROM THE TERRITORIES
(A SCRIPT)

About to break
siege,
and no longer act
again with one’s
sins and co-
signs.

Not thinking even
twice, dis-
pensing senses
and sentinels, lo-
wering the guard
of frontiers,
to proscribe it.

Abolishing customs
clans and fates

Without pros and pos-
thumous tombs,
cutting off the rose
from the routes,
dissipating winds
(eight of them),
undonning
pairs and dispairs

Mining
the margin
(the third)
of an anonymous
river

Extra-
dicting it.

—translated by rodrigo bravo
Simone Homem de Mello is a Brazilian writer and translator, holding a Master’s Degree in translation from the University of Köln (Germany). During her time in Germany, Simone wrote the libretti for the operas Orpheus Kristall (2002), Keine Stille ausser der des Windes (2007), and UBU – eine musikalische Groteske (2012). Her poetic works are published on the books Périplos (2005), Extravio Marinho (2010), Terminal, à Escrita (2015). Simone also translates contemporary German poetry to Portuguese and is project coordinator of the Center for Literary Translation Studies of Casa Guilherme de Almeida, in São Paulo.