6 Manoel de Barros Translations by Bruna Dantas Lobato and Flávia Stefani Resende

By and | 15 September 2022

VI.
Since the beginning water and soil have loved one another
and entered one another lovingly
and fed one another.
Fish were born to inhabit the rivers.
And birds were born to inhabit the trees.
And the waters aided the creation of snails and
their slugs.
The waters are the epiphany of creation.
I think of the waters in Pantanal.
I think of the infant rivers seeking slopes
to run through.
Because the waters here are still spread out to
the joy of the cranes.
These small stumps still had to make
ravines to contain them in their waterbeds.
I humbly think I was invited to
these water banquets.
Because I’m a bugre.
Because I’m from the bog.
Now I think that these waters that know so well
the innocence of their birds and their trees.
That they belong to our origins too.
So I praise this source of all beings and of all
plants.
Because we are all indebted to these waters.
I praise the voice of the people of this place who
give us through the moistness of their words the good
innocence of their origins.

VI.
Desde o começo do mundo água e chão se amam
e se entram amorosamente
e se fecundam.
Nascem peixes para habitar os rios.
E nascem pássaros para habitar as árvores.
As águas ainda ajudam na formação dos caracóis e das
suas lesmas.
As águas são a epifania da criação.
Agora eu penso nas águas no Pantanal.
Penso nos rios infantis que ainda procuram declives
para escorrer.
Porque as águas deste lugar ainda são espraiadas para
alegria das garças.
Estes pequenos corixos ainda precisam de formar
barrancos para se comportarem em seus leitos.
Penso com humildade que fui convidado para o
banquete dessas águas.
Porque sou de bugre.
Porque sou de brejo.
Acho agora que essas águas que bem conhecem a
inocência de seus pássaros e de suas árvores.
Que elas pertecem também de nossas origens.
Louvo portanto esta fonte de todos os seres e de todas
as plantas.
Vez que todos somos devedores destas águas.
Louvo ainda as vozes dos habitantes deste lugar que
trazem para nós, na umidez de suas palavras, a boa
inocência de suas origens.

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