Ferreira Gullar #2
THERE ARE A LOT OF TRAPS IN THE WORLD
There are a lot of traps in the world
and every trap can be shelter
and every shelter can be a trap
Like your window
wide open to the sky
and a star to tell you humanity’s nothing
or the morning’s froth on the beach,
pounding before Cabral, before Troy
(4 centuries ago, Tomás Bequimão*
took the city, raised a people’s militia,
was sold out, thrown into jail and hanged)
There are a lot of traps in the world
and a lot of mouths to tell you
that life’s not much
that life’s just nuts
And why not the Bomb? they ask you.
Why not the Bomb to have done with it all, since
life’s just nuts?
But then you look at your son
what a brave little brute
he doesn’t know
and so he runs
deep into life
and goes and grabs his ball and looks right into the sun, enthralled,
sees airplanes and asks and asks and asks
Life’s not much
life’s just nuts
but there’s nothing else.
And you didn’t kill youself, that’s the truth of it.
You’re locked in life like in a cage.
We’re all locked in this cage
Gagarin saw for the first time
from outside and he told us it’s blue.
And we already know it, so much so
that you didn’t kill yourself
and you’re not going to kill yourself
and you’ll put up with it forever.
Truth is, in this cage there are those who have
and those who don’t have
there are those who have so much they could
feed the whole city
and those who couldn’t scrape together enough to pay for lunch today
That star’s a liar
and the ocean wants you confused.
Truth is, people are locked into life
and need to live
people are hungry
and need to eat
people have kids
and need to raise them
There are a lot of traps in the world and we have to smash them all.
_____
*Tomás Bequimão (Thomas Beckman): with his brother, Manuel Beckman, a leader of a revolt in Maranhão in 1684.
from the book DENTRO DA NOITE VELOZ (IN SPEEDING NIGHT), 1962-1975. Selections from this book (including the original of this poem: No mundo há muitas armadilhas) can be found HERE (site in Portuguese). After almost a year living underground, Gullar went into exile (Moscow, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires) from 1971-1977.
There are a lot of traps in the world
and every trap can be shelter
and every shelter can be a trap
Like your window
wide open to the sky
and a star to tell you humanity’s nothing
or the morning’s froth on the beach,
pounding before Cabral, before Troy
(4 centuries ago, Tomás Bequimão*
took the city, raised a people’s militia,
was sold out, thrown into jail and hanged)
There are a lot of traps in the world
and a lot of mouths to tell you
that life’s not much
that life’s just nuts
And why not the Bomb? they ask you.
Why not the Bomb to have done with it all, since
life’s just nuts?
But then you look at your son
what a brave little brute
he doesn’t know
and so he runs
deep into life
and goes and grabs his ball and looks right into the sun, enthralled,
sees airplanes and asks and asks and asks
Life’s not much
life’s just nuts
but there’s nothing else.
And you didn’t kill youself, that’s the truth of it.
You’re locked in life like in a cage.
We’re all locked in this cage
Gagarin saw for the first time
from outside and he told us it’s blue.
And we already know it, so much so
that you didn’t kill yourself
and you’re not going to kill yourself
and you’ll put up with it forever.
Truth is, in this cage there are those who have
and those who don’t have
there are those who have so much they could
feed the whole city
and those who couldn’t scrape together enough to pay for lunch today
That star’s a liar
and the ocean wants you confused.
Truth is, people are locked into life
and need to live
people are hungry
and need to eat
people have kids
and need to raise them
There are a lot of traps in the world and we have to smash them all.
_____
*Tomás Bequimão (Thomas Beckman): with his brother, Manuel Beckman, a leader of a revolt in Maranhão in 1684.
from the book DENTRO DA NOITE VELOZ (IN SPEEDING NIGHT), 1962-1975. Selections from this book (including the original of this poem: No mundo há muitas armadilhas) can be found HERE (site in Portuguese). After almost a year living underground, Gullar went into exile (Moscow, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires) from 1971-1977.
posted by BN-B at 8:17 AM
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