from the depths of time



Mário Quintana is one of Brazil's most popular poets. His poems display sophistication under the apparent simplicity of straightforward language and everyday themes. These conceal profound reflections on death, time, old age and poetry itself. 

Quintana had considerable experience as a translator of Virginia Woolf, Balzac, Proust, Conrad, etc when he published his first book in 1940. A Rua dos Cataventos (The Windmill Street) was followed by many others in a versatility that includes sonnets, free verse, and even children's books. Quintana died on May 5, 1994, at the age of 87.

This is my own translation of one of his precious poems:


THE LOOKING GLASS

Mário Quintana


As I was passing by the looking glass

my room could not be seen with its bookcases

not even my face

where time does trickle.


Some portraits on the wall - 

windows for severe grandfathers 

and grandmas in hoop skirts, 

inverted parachutes to bring them up from the depths of time.


The clock said the time,

the day is unknown.

Motionless

puzzled time.


Time inert

on the roof...

like a vaneless windmill.


In: WEISSBORT, Daniel, ed. Modern Poetry in Translation. New Series/No.6/Winter 1994-95. Special Feature: Modern Poetry from Brazil. King’s College London, University of London, Art Council funded.


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