r u y  v e n t u r a

translation: b r i a n  s t r a n g
(in Alice Blue Revue, nº. 6
I S S N 1 5 5 9 - 6 5 6 7)





How to Leave a House








house—earth



a) the arch chooses whomever seeks
the house
descends until it is very close
to the earth



b) two sacks of coal dust the carpenter’s shop
on the corner
no one seems to live here
there is plenty of time



c) god or child? I encounter
in the stone
above all the hand and the heat
of whomever breathes



d) two or three tiles lightly broken
the instant
a wall encircling
the garden



e) the rain transports what is left
of the city
the bus climbing until it reaches
the door



f) suddenly two children cry
it is definitely
on the other side
of the reeds







door—place



tonight
it opens
over the road



the door swings to the north and to the south



too far
the room
where a city
inside a river
(in a vase?)
rises to the middle of the mirror
ignoring the books



dividing itself as if a street



the only worthwhile way to save space
—an acacia spreading
in



its radiance










books—apartment



the books
shield the living room from
the wind
that at mid–afternoon
blows over the whole valley



the eyes close with persistence
and only the voice—at sixteen kilometers—
can wake up
everything
in the apartment



over the bed
the night air
overtakes the blinds—almost shut



an automobile
starts on
the road
after hitting the door
(there was no parking)



two or three presences
might come from the pine trees
cut recently
for another field



an airplane tries
to fly over these hours
in the direction of the valley



everything unites around the music from the garden
from the pianos
—from the left side of the veranda
somewhere between the beach
and the tiny



garden









building—birth



right before
the best place to cross to the other side
of the building was not certain—
a water tank, maybe an acacia
two or three balconies
on the last mornings of december



someone reduces the foundation of the house
—I remember the garden olive tree by olive tree
the cement stairs the arm
holding on to
melancholy



I decided to save the envelope in the last dresser drawer:
I put our names among the objects whose significance absorbs us
it is difficult to determine the resonances
when at ten in the morning we abandon
a city that grows



I never really had a garden—
too close or too far
at which we could arrive,
the image grows every fifteen days
though the trips would be just
the beginning of a birth



the door opens as a line on the horizon
between two rainy nights
everything is in everything we
belong to everything







ache—equilibrium

(co-translated with Elisa Brasil)



this is how one leaves a house
(the house)
the forks the cups the plates the bed
the fire—firewood in the corner with the fireplace—
the pitcher protecting the distance between the fountain
and happiness,
the pocketknife hidden for more than thirty years,
the stove in the center of the kitchen
right in front of the door window



two photographs hanging on the wall
remembered the ache and the equilibrium,
the strangeness of having saved
various gusts of wind and of mystery



this was not the place of birth



just a pause



a window
shut so long ago





RUY VENTURA (b. 1973, Portalegre, Portugal) is a teacher near Lisbon. He has published in poetry, Architecture of Silence (Lisbon, 2000—Revelation Prize of the Association of Portuguese Writers), seven capitals of the world (Lisbon, 2003), How to Leave a House (Coimbra, 2003—Portuguese and Castilian edition), A Little More On the City (Villanueva de la Serena, Spain 2004—Portuguese and Castilian edition) and The Place, The Image (also a bilingual edition). He has translated various Spanish, French and Flemish poets into Portuguese, has written essays on contemporary Portuguese poetry, traditional poetry and toponymy and has contributed to various Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian magazines. His blog can be visited at alicerces1.blogspot.com.


BRIAN STRANG, co-editor of 26: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics, lives in Oakland and teaches English composition at San Francisco State University and Merritt College. He is the author of Incretion (Sputyen Duyvil) and machinations (a free Duration ebook) among others. i n v i s i b i l i t y, a special edition with drawings by Basil King, is forthcoming from Spuyten Duyvil. Recent poem/paintings can be seen at his site, Sorry Nature. His poem/paintings will be opening at Canessa Park Gallery in San Francisco on June 3rd.



Fonte: http://www.alicebluereview.org/six/six.html
Consulta: 29/6/2010