POEMS FROM THE PORTUGUESE

POEMA DE RICARDO MARQUES 

Parténon

Quando Elgin
chegou a Atenas
para defender
os gregos
de si próprios
e dos turcos

olhou para todo
aquele mármore
e pensou que
tinha de começar
por ali:

toda a barbárie
é afinal puro
pragmatismo.

2016, Ruinenlust

não (edições)
© Ricardo Marques

Parthenon

When Elgin
arrived in Athens
to defend
the Greeks
from themselves
and the Turks

he looked at all
that marble
and thought
he had to start
there:

in the end
all barbarism is pure
pragmatism.

© Translated by Ana Hudson, 2020
in Poems from the Portuguese