The Painter Estêvão Silva

surrounded by Exus
is simultaneously the blood
and metal of his sculpture.

What he paints, is sculpted,
and might seem to some
a son-of-the-saint's living faith.

But what he affixes is struggle
of thought and space.
Principles of Ogum.

The painter Jorge dos Anjos
orients himself in objects.
and each one opens
windows for him. To make
colors he uses rust
as one can see in the cloth

that Ossaim does not wear.
In Jorge one sees the calculation
that measures surfaces.

Ideas of the person who prays
taking advantage of the galleries
of plazas streets churches.

And during an exhibit,
a Baroque African god,
invokes geometry.

--Translated by Steven F. White

From White.

Edimilson de Almeida Pereira lives in Juiz de Fora in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He has published poetry and studies of Brazilian culture which include Corpo vivido, A roda do mundo (with Ricardo Aleixo), Negras raízes mineiras: Os arturos, and Mundo encaixado: Significação da cultura popular. He teaches Brazilian literature at the Federal University in Juiz de Fora.

Steven F. White's study and translations of contemporary Afro-Brazilian poetry have appeared in Callaloo 18.4, 19.1, and 20.1. He is the co-author with Edimilson de Almeida Pereira of "Brazil: Analysis of the Interactions and Conflicts in a Multicultural Society" in Cultural Cartographies: Comparative Studies in Race, Ethnicity and Nationhood. He also translated the subtitles for the feature-length film Cruz e Sousa: O Poeta do Desterro (1999) by Brazilian director Sylvio Back. White's CD Transversions (2001) includes his translations set to music of poetry by Latin American and Spanish writers. His most recent volume of poetry is Fire that Engenders Fire/Fuego que engendra fuego. He teaches at St. Lawrence University.

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