Feature—13 Poems by Règis Bonvicino

Règis Bonvicino is one of Brazil's leading contemporary poets. Born in 1955 in Sao Paulo, where he currently lives, he is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, including Règis Hotel (1978), Mas Compenhias (1987), 33 Poemas (1990), and Outras Poemas (1993). Sky-Eclipse / Selected Poems, by Règis Bonvicino, translated into English by Michael Palmer, Guy Bennett, Robert Creeley, Douglas Messerli, Charles Bernstein and others, will soon be available from Green Integer Press ("Me Too" and "Ownerless Houses" from TF's selection will appear in that book). In addition Bonvicino's work was featured in Nothing The Sun Could Not Explain:20 Contemporary Brazilian Poets, an anthology of Brazilian poetry published by Sun and Moon in 1997.

Here's what Claude Royet-Journoud had to say about Bonvicino's work: It is the mutual observation of a body and a language, in the minute slowness of the world which cries out in the surprising richness of Règis Bonvicino's work. At times it reminds us of the powerful and striking narrative of a Larry Eigner or a Robert Creeley. An imperceptible movement shakes up the surface which, under our eyes, collapses and, just as soon, is reconstituted. Nevertheless, it remains out of reach. One can only grasp the violent cesura of the world.

            —Leonard Schwartz



      ***

Me Too


Me too I live in the streets. Cigarrete butt behind my ear, ashtray - in my hand. "You don't look like you live in the streets." Fragment of tooth in mouth. That instant, buildings were plundering shadows, sleepless, birthing snakes. They said, on the sidewalk he would have suddenly pulled a knife. Curbs edged by lights. Cubic buildings swaying beneath arcades of samauma. Dead corners? And downtown, under an arch, swollen lights measuring horizon. Mute voices race by in confusion and a growl, maybe a raccoon. Afternoon, crows cawing in the trees, squat cactus by the house. Highways guiding nights. Close by Johnnie's Coffee Shop, its faint play of lights. Walls don't shrink like sleep. Aqua and white. Motionless dawn inside the room.


(tr. Michael Palmer)



Ownerless Houses


Traffic light - wooden box, slat walls, a sofa - bags, maybe to shelter the head. Half-wall, garden's realm, feldspar: head leaning against stone - looking deep into night, the street, blind. Lounging on a low wall, dragging at a cigarrete, in sight of passerby, housing variant, under the awning in front were he always sleeps. Bare back, head in crossed arms: red bedspread between body and step - flowerpot casting shade, white and blue weave, under canvas on the sidewalk. Another box, emptied out, as chair. The narrow street, crossing, as door. Afternoon light: stairway as room, treeroot-groundsill below - above, white chair of fragile plastic - bush, building, veranda.


for Lôcio Cost
(tr. Michael Palmer)



Among


Among motors
and noises
(dry
chirp
and dissonant
splinter)
the bird's flight
creates

a new hypothesis
of space


(Tr. Dana Stevens)



Ego


Ego unhinges
siren & skull

Narcissus
of an I

imprecise Bosch
at clavical height

Species of cogito
the sign of incognito

Shadowless man

in the skin,
body around almost nothing


(tr. Jennifer Sarah Frota)



The Night


The night is a plain
deserted
or paramo
shadow of sounds
(on a corner)

uncertain
concurrence of antennae
dwarves
or contracted
eletric light

in the empty bedroom
night
from the height of your silence
meanwhile
i pronounce myself


(tr. Jennifer Sarah Frota)



Among


Among motors
and noises
(dry
chirp

and dissonant
splinter)
the bird's flight
creates

a new hypothesis
of space

(tr. Dana Stevens)



from Figures, Days, Circles


Days
in my quarters
days
in rectangles

Dromedaries
squared
are circles
with angles


(tr. Jennifer Sarah Frota)



Circle


As vibrant
as
a sun
at its zenith.

As obvious
as
the time
on a clockSigma

Gnawed
circles

in the tree
squirrels

move
in circles

(tr. Jennifer Sarah Frota)



Quadrate
for Bruna


One ant
cutting clouds
ants trace

quadrate paths
while white
clouds pass

the sunset
giraffes
four by four


(tr. Règis Bonvicino and Robert Creeley)



Untitled (2)


Eden of dry petals
Ant with swollen abdomen
Shadows of identical figures
—Suns excluded—
Vipers
Near the lost times suns
which cannot be identified
(The car crunches alyssums and verbenas)
Petals seen through the window
A nonexistent cloud that moves


(tr. John Milton)



Unwritten Ones


Rather than mammals
insects
roaches, termites
instead of forests
roofs,
wardrobes,
of rivers, oceans, lakes
mice,
frozen birds
furs, shoes
spiders and not sepiderst
hrough the inanimate
teletigers,
i lionbooks,
webs and not reptiles
buffooning buffaloes,
voic-zebras
odd swans
plus other creatures: unwritten ones


(tr. Odile Cisneros)



A Sunset's Words


a sunset's words:
carbides
that kill the air,
rocky-air,
that turn the sunset
into a pamphlet
against
neonletters,
against
the chemical insects
(and their methods)

a sunset's words:
(purpleorange as death)
revealing the sun
(even before the sunset)
ancient
sun that watches
(blind, ex-sun)
shadows on objects

(tr. Odile Cisneros)



Legend, No. 2


Tree fragments
space imposes
on sight

Red no
to cars
under wires

In window-
like silence
this empty line.


(tr. Guy Bennet)