Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Luís Quintais

A CERTAIN INNOCENCE

Birds devour the garbage.
Gluttony makes them scramble,
contriving ambushes, machinations

which the soul has no part in.
Their wings go flap flap flap
in the black plastic. You stop.

Something makes you observe.
With aphorisms you sanctify
the reasons of those who despair.

What does poetry do?
It redeems and redeems and redeems
like those wings thrashing

the black plastic, flap flap flap.
You sanctify the reasons
of those who despair,

the anguishing implications
of the imagination, the world
going out like the light

in the room of childhood,
thrashing the sumptuous plastic,
all that you turned your back on

and that doesn’t demand to exist.
What does poetry do?
It redeems certain types of things

through a certain type of words a certain
type of wings flap flap flap a certain type
of desperate reasons.

Uma inocência

Uma inocência

Aves devoram o lixo.
Debatem-se sob o peso da gula
investindo ciladas, disposições

de onde se isenta a alma.
Flap, flap, flap, fazem asas
no negro plástico. Tu paras.

Por vontade alheia observas.
Por aforismos sagras
as razões dos que desesperam.

O que faz a poesia?
Remir e remir e remir
como as asas espancando

o negro plástico, flap, flap, flap.
Sagras as razões
dos que desesperam,

as implicações disfóricas
da imaginação, o mundo
extinguindo-se como a luz

do quarto de infância,
o sumptuoso plástico espancado,
aquilo a que viraste costas

e que não teima existir.
O que faz a poesia?
Remir por certo tipo de palavras

certo tipo de coisas certo tipo
de asas flap flap flap certo tipo
de razões desesperadas.
Close

A CERTAIN INNOCENCE

Birds devour the garbage.
Gluttony makes them scramble,
contriving ambushes, machinations

which the soul has no part in.
Their wings go flap flap flap
in the black plastic. You stop.

Something makes you observe.
With aphorisms you sanctify
the reasons of those who despair.

What does poetry do?
It redeems and redeems and redeems
like those wings thrashing

the black plastic, flap flap flap.
You sanctify the reasons
of those who despair,

the anguishing implications
of the imagination, the world
going out like the light

in the room of childhood,
thrashing the sumptuous plastic,
all that you turned your back on

and that doesn’t demand to exist.
What does poetry do?
It redeems certain types of things

through a certain type of words a certain
type of wings flap flap flap a certain type
of desperate reasons.

A CERTAIN INNOCENCE

Birds devour the garbage.
Gluttony makes them scramble,
contriving ambushes, machinations

which the soul has no part in.
Their wings go flap flap flap
in the black plastic. You stop.

Something makes you observe.
With aphorisms you sanctify
the reasons of those who despair.

What does poetry do?
It redeems and redeems and redeems
like those wings thrashing

the black plastic, flap flap flap.
You sanctify the reasons
of those who despair,

the anguishing implications
of the imagination, the world
going out like the light

in the room of childhood,
thrashing the sumptuous plastic,
all that you turned your back on

and that doesn’t demand to exist.
What does poetry do?
It redeems certain types of things

through a certain type of words a certain
type of wings flap flap flap a certain type
of desperate reasons.
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère