Tag: portuguese poetry translated into English

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Poetry, You ask

Photo by Maksym Dashko

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POETRY, YOU ASK

Abbās Ibn Firnās climbed a towering height and, strapped to two wings,
first, he plunged into the abyss, then he glided over the skies of Córdoba.
tears of joy broke out, praise be to Allah!
centuries later, long before Leonardo, Eilmer also flew,
above Malmesbury Abbey, imitating the craft of birds.
God have mercy on that madman!

poetry, you ask?
always that same death‑defying leap into the void,
and somehow one survives it, again, and again, and again

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Poem by João Ricardo Lopes | Translated by Marcus Margrave (2026)

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My Father

Photo by Florin Dumitru

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MY FATHER

my father sets stakes in the backyard.
at his age he still lifts the tangled rows of peas,
the strawberries, and the white blossoms of the plum tree,
and later the beautiful, heavy bodies of its fruit.
he crouches, in silence, mending wire threads,
braiding and unbraiding the pumpkin ropes.
sometimes, toward nightfall, he keeps tying
and untying knots,
always crouched, always with his back turned.
if we offer him a word, water, a handful of walnuts,
he raises a hand in quiet protest.
why does my father work so much.
to whom does he wish to pass, with such pain,
his stakes lifted to the sky.
what does his weary tongue say, full of hints,
already hungry – I want to believe – for eternity

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Poem by João Ricardo Lopes | Translated by Marcus Margrave (2026)

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