Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

António Ramos Rosa

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess
throbbing like a nest opening up to the outside
Ignorance relishes the dark substances
born into brightness from out of their own depths
They take their place in height and density
like a grove of trees in the breeze of a white science
And so all work is the startled shade
where the present center of a past age insists
This is being in the light of living things
and through a mineral blackness the liquid eyes
almost red or yellow trembling appear
Astonished by such soft motion
now we are no more than an ageless freshness
that gives us the height and shadow and perfect suggestion
of animals in the brush when the dawn of fresh peace

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess

Ofício que vem da privação e de um excesso
que pulsa como um ninho que se abrisse ao âmbito
Toda a ignorância saboreia as substâncias escuras
que nascem para a claridade do fundo de si mesmas
O lugar vão tomando a prumo e em densidade
como um arvoredo na brisa de uma ciência branca
E assim todo o trabalho é a penumbra estremecida
em que se aprofunda o centro actual de uma idade antiga
Assim se está na luz das coisas vivas
e através de uma negrura mineral vêem-se os olhos líquidos
quase amarelos ou vermelhos oscilantes
Atónitos no doce movimento
já não somos mais do que a frescura sem idade
que nos dá altura e sombra e insinuação perfeita
de animais na folhagem num alvor de fresca paz
Close

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess
throbbing like a nest opening up to the outside
Ignorance relishes the dark substances
born into brightness from out of their own depths
They take their place in height and density
like a grove of trees in the breeze of a white science
And so all work is the startled shade
where the present center of a past age insists
This is being in the light of living things
and through a mineral blackness the liquid eyes
almost red or yellow trembling appear
Astonished by such soft motion
now we are no more than an ageless freshness
that gives us the height and shadow and perfect suggestion
of animals in the brush when the dawn of fresh peace

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess

A vocation that comes from want and from an excess
throbbing like a nest opening up to the outside
Ignorance relishes the dark substances
born into brightness from out of their own depths
They take their place in height and density
like a grove of trees in the breeze of a white science
And so all work is the startled shade
where the present center of a past age insists
This is being in the light of living things
and through a mineral blackness the liquid eyes
almost red or yellow trembling appear
Astonished by such soft motion
now we are no more than an ageless freshness
that gives us the height and shadow and perfect suggestion
of animals in the brush when the dawn of fresh peace
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère