Selected Poems

Vozes-Mulheres

A voz de minha bisavóecoou criançanos porões de navio.ecoou lamentosde uma infância perdida.

A voz de minha avóEcoou obediênciaAos brancos-donos de tudo.

A voz de minha mãeecoou baixinho revoltano fundo das cozinhas alheiasdebaixo das trouxasroupagens sujas dos brancospelo caminho empoeiradorumo à favela.

A minha voz aindaecoa versos perplexoscom rimas de sangue    e    fome.A voz da minha filharecorre todas as nossas vozesrecolhe em sias vozes mudas caladasengasgadas nas gargantas.A voz de minha filharecolhe em sia fala a ato.O ontem – o hoje – o agora.Na voz de minha filhase fará ouvir a ressonânciao eco da vida-liberdade.

Women Voices

The voice of my great-grandmotherechoed as a childinside the ship’s bowels.Echoing moansof a lost childhood.

The voice of my grandmotherechoed obedienceto the white-owners of everything.

The voice of my motherwhispered echoes of revoltin the very end of the other’s kitchensunder the trussesof whites’ dirty linenalong the dusty roadtowards the slum.

My voice stillechoes perplexing versesin rhymes of blood    and    hunger.

The voice of my daughteruniting all our voicesgathers within itselfthe dumb silenced voiceschoking in our throats.The voice of my daughtergathers within itselfspeech and action.Yesterday - today - now.In my daughter’s voicethe resonance will be heardthe echo of freedom-life.

Meo Corpo Igual

Em memória de Adão Ventura

Na escuridão da noitemeu corpo igualfere perigosadivinha recadosassobios e tantãs.

Na escuridão igualmeu corpo noiteabre vulcânicoa pele étnicaque me reveste.

Na escuridão da noitemeu corpo igual,bóia lágrimas, oceânico,crivando buscascravando sonhosaquilombando esperançasna escuridão da noite.

My Equal Body

In memory of Adão Ventura¹

In the darkness of the nightmy equal bodydiffuses dangersdeciphers messageswhistles and tam-tams².

In equal darknessmy night bodyopens volcanicallythe ethnic skinthat dresses me.

In the darkness of the nightmy equal bodyfloats tears, oceanlike,sieving searchesnailing dreamsquilombo-gathering3 hopesin the darkness of the night.

Notes

1. Adão Ventura (1946-2004) was a Black Brazilian poet, born in Minas Gerais, also the birthplace of Conceição Evaristo. A lawyer by profession, Ventura’s poetic lyricism centers the socio-politic issues of blackness, expressed stylisticly with revolted, short, intense verses. In his work, the poet contemplates his sensitive racial existence under the impact of a mestiça society, presumably white and intensely aggressive, entrenched in European colonial ideology. His poems have been translated into English and German.

2. Tam-tams: tantãs in the original Brazilian Portuguese. Indicates the sound of the drums used in African rutals. As in numerous Black communities of the Americas, it is a sound emitted from a particular drum, the tam-tam.

3. Quilombo-gathering: aquilombar: from quilombo, a historically communal place of resistance and maintenance of identity, independence, and power. To resist the terrors of slavery, Blacks, both free and enslaved, organized in quilombos, escaping the tyranny of the slave economy in order to establish themselves politically, socially, and culturally.

Eu-Mulher

Uma gota de leiteme escorre entre os seios.Uma mancha de sangueme enfeita entre as pernas.Meia palavra mordidame foge da boca.Vagos desejos insinuam esperança.

Eu-mulher em rios vermelhosinauguro a vida.Em baixa vozviolento os tímpanos do mundo.Antevejo.Antecipo.Antes-vivo.

Antes – agora – o que há de vir.Eu fêmea-matriz.Eu-mulherabrigo da sementemoto-contínuodo mundo.

I-WOMAN

A drop of milkruns between my breasts.A bloodstainbetween my legs adorns me.A half-bitten wordescapes from my mouth.Vague desires insinuating hopes...