POEMS FROM THE PORTUGUESE

POEMA DE RUI LAGE

Caça grossa

Entopem o gargalo da toca
espetando o nariz, calcando
esquivo lagarto pateando
ossinhos de rato no Éden
de outra vida
enquanto das élficas orelhas
sacodem dejectos de sol:
duas raposas recém-nascidas.
Indiferentes ao milhafre
e à doninha,
em qualquer colo felizes
de qualquer leite beberiam.
Mas na aldeia,
numa porta de estábulo
imunda e carunchosa
o sangue secou no ruivo pêlo
e na materna cabeça a pólvora
onde a bala deu entrada.

in Corvo, 2008

Big game

They block the burrow’s passage
sniffing outwards, treading
on some shifty lizard patting
mice bones in the Eden
of another life
while their elf-like tiny ears
prickle and shake off the sun:
two newly born fox pups.
Oblivious to buzzard
or polecat,
happy in any lap
they’d drink of any milk.
But in the village,
on some filthy, worm-eaten
stable door
blood dries on red fur
and gunpowder
stains the maternal head.

© Translated by Ana Hudson, 2011
in Poems from the Portuguese