A poem about the labor of poetry by Salgado Maranhao

Songwriter-Poet Salgado Maranhao visits us this afternoon. Here is a poem about the labor of poetry.

"Of Will," translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin

Of the scratches sculpted
by a hand
only those that glow
survive.
A nomad, morning
strips bare the sun
on the surface
of the flesh,
multiple,
in the giddiness of language.
There are no floodgates
No paths prepared
No Saharas
or Viennas
In everything a battle
bedecked
with flowers
and coffins.
In everything a carving
on the other side
of things that show themselves
but don’t surrender,
that only in a verse are seen,
in the peeling of the underside.
(Offenses that in exile
drown the lyre
crimson red,
record through jubilation,
erase through rage.)
The breath of rhythm’s second chance,
the intimacy of unvoiced ways,
the breath of will, the breath of days.

Read More......

Growing up in a thatched hut: Poet Salgado Maranhao

Afro-Brazilian poet Salgado Maranhao, who visits us on October 2, grew up in a thatched hut and learned to read at the age of 16.

Maranhao's life and work is the subject of a new exhibition at Casa das Rosas in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a state-sponsored literary organization and exhibition space that promotes Brazilian poets and poetry. The exhibition runs September 4-23.

Here's a link to Casa das Rosas, translated imperfectly into English.

Here's a link to the official press release from the State of Sao Paulo, also translated imperfectly.

More about Salgado Maranhao in the Institute's press release:

Albany, NY—  A native of Brazil’s dry, impoverished northeast, Salgado Maranhão is a leading contemporary Afro-Brazilian poet, as well as a songwriter for many of Brazil’s most prominent jazz, samba and pop musicians. The son of a black fieldworker (mother) and a member of the white plantocracy (father), Maranhão describes himself as “born both to slavery and the manor house.”

Translated by Alexis Levitin, Maranhão’s first bilingual collection in English and Portuguese, Blood of the Sun [Sol Sangüíne], will be published in September 2012.

Gregory Rabassa, bestselling translator of One Hundred Years of Solitude, called the new translation, “a perfect English rendering of Salgado Maranhão’s deft expression of the tonality of this people and land.”  Writing in World Literature Today, Kaitlin Hawkins said that Maranhão’s new work, “combines his love of jazz with his love of the written word. In verses that pair socio-political thought with abstract and metaphysical subjects, Maranhão’s lines move with the rhythms inherent to a Brazilian jazz ballad.” Antonio Carlos Secchin, one of Brazil’s preeminent literary scholars, said, “Maranhão has reached the high point of his work (so far)… a speculative intelligence and a celebration of the corporality of the world are expressed with great metaphoric vigor.”

Maranhão recently received Brazil’s highest literary award, the Brazilian Academy of Letters Prize, for his collected poems, A Cor da Palavra [The Color of the Word] (2011). An earlier collection, Mural de Ventos [Mural of Winds] (1998) received the prestigious Prêmio Jabuti.  Other collections include A pelagem da tigra [Tiger’s Fur] (2009), O Beijo da Fera [The Kiss of the Beast] (1996), and Os Punhos da Serpente [The Snake’s Fists] (1989). Maranhão has also written lyrics and composed music for an impressive roster of contemporary Brazilian musicians including Amelinha, Elba Ramalho, Ney Matogrosso, Paulinho da Viola, Rosa Marya Colin, Vital Farias, and Zizi Possi among others. A tribute album by various artists, Amoragio, was released in 2006.

Read More......