Portuguese | The Common

Two Poems from The Spring of Plagues

March 2, 2023 Poetry, Translation

Translated from the Portuguese by HEATH WING

Translator’s Note:

Translating the poetry of Ana Carolina Assis can best be described as an ebb-and-flow process. By this I mean that her poetry seems to possess its own current, with waters that rise and recede from one line to the next. Tapping into this current is precisely what proved key to translating Ana’s poetry. Like many contemporary Brazilian poets, Ana largely favors the omission of punctuation, often creating ambiguity in how a line or stanza should flow. She also does not capitalize proper nouns. In English, I maintain the lack of capitalization, including

Podcast: Jethro Soutar on Portuguese Translations

February 12, 2021 Lusosphere, Podcast, Podcasts & Audio

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

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Translator Jethro Soutar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about three pieces he translated from Portuguese for Issue 20 of The Common magazine. These pieces appear in a special portfolio of writing from and about the Lusosphere—Portugal’s colonial and linguistic diaspora around the globe. In this conversation, Soutar talks about the complexities of translating poetry and prose: capturing not just the meaning of a piece but the feeling and atmosphere of it, and the culture behind the scenes. He also explains a little of the colonial and racial history of Portugal, Cape Verde, and Mozambique, and how those events echo today through the literature and language of modern Lusophone countries.

A Cornstalk

December 17, 2020 Fiction, Lusosphere, Translation

By RUBEM BRAGA

Translated from the Portuguese by RACHEL MORGENSTERN-CLARREN

Through radar, the Americans made contact with the moon, which of course is exciting. But the most important event of the week happened with my cornstalk.

In my backyard, in a pile of dirt the gardener gathered, something was born that might have been just plain grass—but that I discovered was a cornstalk. I transplanted it to the narrow flowerbed in front of the house. The small leaves were dried out; I thought it was dead. But it revived. When it was the size of a palm, I showed a friend and he declared disdainfully that it was actually grass. When it was the size of two palms, I showed another friend, and he confirmed that it was sugar cane.

Another Education

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Poetry, Translation

By CRISTINA CARLOS
Translated by JETHRO SOUTAR

At school I learned to count—one plus one is two
I learned to multiply—one times one is one
And subtract—one minus me is zero: Nothing!

Brief Exchanges

October 28, 2020 Essays, Issue 20, Issue 20 Essays, Lusosphere, Translation

By SUSANA MOREIRA MARQUES

Translated by JULIA SANCHES

1.
It begins with her saying I’ve never told anyone and ends with me saying Neither have I. And in between, a single sentence on how the love we feel for a child is not necessarily immediate, on how we need time to get to know and fall in love with another being, even though they were once inside us. We talk over the phone; this may never have happened face-to-face, or as we looked one another in the eye.

two chairs

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Poetry, Translation

By JARID ARRAES

Translated by MARGUERITE ITAMAR HARRISON

tell me
about how tough everything is
and even the beer’s out of reach
and even writing has dried up
tell me

Sea of Azov

October 28, 2020 Fiction, Issue 20, Issue 20 Fiction, Lusosphere, Translation

By HÉLIO PÓLVORA
Translated by AMANDA SARASIEN

The sea was unfurling bolts of cotton on the beach.

But now, at least in this cove, the sea is muddy. The waves sprawling on the sand, under the spotlight of an intense sun, exhibit a strange hue—a corrupt, corrosive red that might be called ocher, as if the sea, in its incessant flow, had passed through steep, muddy ravines before subsiding here, and dislodged clumps of earth that dissolved to contaminate green water, bluish water.

Ascendant Scorpio

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Poetry, Translation

By MATILDE CAMPILHO
Translated by HUGO DOS SANTOS

for José

On the night Billy Ray was born
(New York, 28^th and 7^th)
not one soul contemplated the geraniums
There was, however, the sound of the world falling
like multiple stalactites
in the area surrounding the hospital

Alone, I Arrive in a Looted City

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Poetry, Translation

By JOSÉ LUÍS PEIXOTO
Translated by HUGO DOS SANTOS

Alone, I arrive in a looted city
and walk slowly, my arms hanging
loosely, I look through open doors,

The Mermaids’ Cry

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry, Translation

By LEONARDO TONUS
Translated by CAROLYNE WRIGHT

The Common Magazine · The Mermaids’ Cry (Leonardo Tonus)

they say that the most impressive of all crossings
is not thirst
or the fear
afterwards.
The humiliation
no longer wounds
what does not exist
they say
bodies in a boat
of bodies
veins
eyes
skin
penis
nails
vagina

All posts tagged: Portuguese

Two Poems from The Spring of Plagues

Podcast: Jethro Soutar on Portuguese Translations

A Cornstalk

Another Education

Brief Exchanges

two chairs

Sea of Azov

Ascendant Scorpio

Alone, I Arrive in a Looted City

The Mermaids’ Cry

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