From Maremorto (2021), a book-length sequence of numbered poems.
3.
water remembers:
once it knows
our treacherous thoughts
it embitters our words
the desert does worse:
it conjures up fresh water
and pickles our tongues
from the inside
3.
a água tem memória:
azeda-nos o idioma
ao saber
dos nossos traiçoeiros pensamentos
o deserto faz pior:
inventa-nos água-doce
e salga-nos a língua
pelo interior
4.
sea
your title
does no justice
to your expanse:
but how do you explain a marathon
to those who’ve never run it?
4.
mar
a tua designação
nao faz jus
à tua dimensão:
mas como explicar a maratona
a quem nunca a correu?
6.
all I’ve got left
from yesterday is the undulation
and my ears are still swimming
over the shape of the waves
like a prayer
you learn when young
stuck to wounds on the skin
6.
do dia de ontem
guardo apenas a ondulação
e os meus ouvidos nadam ainda
pelo contorno das vagas
como uma oração
que aprendemos em criança
grudada à pele em chagas
12.
your anger
is like the sea’s anger at the cliffs
but while I can bear it from the sea
your anger moves in
and sickens the shadows
the sea is never still
it can’t tell that this is the same place
and that’s our chance to get away
12.
a tua ira é
como a do mar sobre os rochedos
mas com o mar aguento bem
tua ira instala-se
e adoece as sombras
o mar nunca está parado
não sabe o que é o mesmo lugar
e dá tempo à nossa fuga
14.
I want you to understand that taking this solemn dive
into an idea of night
is not like climbing into bed
more like the anguished breath of someone
returning to the surface
as if that very moment they were born again
and all was new
and clean
14.
gostaria de explicar-te que não é como
chegados à cama
dando o mergulho solene para uma ideia de noite
mas é o fôlego aflito de quem retorna
à superfície
como se nascesse nesse mesmo instante
e tudo fosse novo
e limpo
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Inês Francisco Jacob was born in Lisboa in 1992. Her poems have been published in several magazines such as Relâmpago, Telhados de Vidro, Limoeiro Real, Nervo, Azar, Lote, Caliban, Umbigo, Apócrifa, among others. In 2020 she was awarded with a DGLAB literary scholarship (poetry). “Sair de Cena”, her first book of poetry, was published by não edições that same year. The same book was published in Brazil by Corsário Satã. “Maremorto”, her second book, created during the scholarship, was published by Alambique at the end of 2021. “Potássio”, her third book, was published at the end of 2024, by Flan de Tal.
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Lawrence Bradby writes poems and short non-fiction prose texts. He translates poetry and short stories from Portuguese and French into English. Since October 2020 he and his family have lived in Portugal. He writes a blog about learning a new language and trying to find a way to belong – livingnotathome.blogspot.com.
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Bastienne Schmidt is a multi disciplinary artist working with photography, painting and large-scale drawings. She was born in Germany and has lived in New York for the past 30 years. Her art work is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris among many others. She has published seven monographs, and was the Artist in Residence at the Parrish Art Museum in 2017 and in 2018 was awarded a residency at the Watermill Center. In 2019 she was chosen to be part of the Parrish Art Museum exhibition ‘Artists Choose Artists’. She is the recipient of the Kodak Book Award, the Best German Poto Book Award and the German Photo Prize. She is also a winner of the World Press Photo Award and she received a grant from the Soros Foundation for her documentary work.
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