Sappho’s Reflection

 

In the ruins of this

self

that from a fragment of you

makes

a whole

I still read the jealousy

that breaks me

now

into a thousand pieces

In an introspective rearview mirror

I see

the beloved look

                            in someone else’s eyes

your desire

                        in someone else’s body

and the ancient pain

without shame

                              sha

                                      tters

 

my precarious

mirage –

your loved one?

 

I watch the couple in love

in your eyes

and I am no longer there

 

I’m          just

                        the time

 

                                        to come

 

 

Philomela (I)

 

A-melodic –

that music I miss

makes

the cut above and below the tongue:

a song that echoes silently.

The flow and spin.

 

My voice is this longing

that over

                  flows:

images sewn

on the fine skin

of thought

 

 

Philomela (II)

 

With the razor’s edge

on the warp of silence

 

what I weave is almost

a scream

almost a song

Reflexo de Safo

 

Nas ruínas desse

eu

que do teu fragmento

faz

um todo

leio ainda o ciúme

que me quebra

agora

em mil pedaços

 

E em retrovisor introspectivo

vejo

o olhar amado

                        em outros olhos

seu desejo

                 em outro corpo

e a dor arcaica

sem pudor

                    es

                         tilhaça

-me a miragem

precária

sua amada?

 

contemplo em teus olhos

o casal enamorado

e já não estou presente

 

sou          a

                    penas

                                     porvir

 

 

Filomela (I)

 

A-melódica, música

que me falta

e faz

aquém e além da língua o corte:

canto que ecoa mudo

fluxo e fio.

 

Minha voz é essa falta

que trans

                 borda:

imagens costuradas

na pele fina

do pensamento

 

 

Filomela (II)

 

Com o fio da navalha

na urdidura do silêncio

 

o que tramo é quase

um grito

quase um canto

Translator's Note

In “Sappho’s Reflection”, we wanted to make it clear that the incomplete tag question “your loved one?” refers to the lyric I’s enquiry to his/her beloved one about his/her thoughts. Hence, we included a dash before “my precarious image”. The poet plays with words in this poem by breaking them, so as to express the lyric’s I heartbreak. In order to emphasise how difficult a feeling is, Brazilians speak slower and stress a syllable of a given word. That is why, the poet separated the word “apenas”. In English, this word translates as “just”, a one-syllable word. Thus, we broke up “the time yet to come” (“porvir”) into two lines to convey that something could still happen in future.


Alice B. Osti Magalhães
Jenny Marshall Rodger

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