AUTHOR ROSALIENE BACCHUS


Reaching minds and hearts through storytelling



PORTO ALEGRE, 2016 BY BRAZILIAN POET ANGÉLICA FREITAS



ANGÉLICA FREITAS is a contemporary Brazilian poet and translator, born in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1973. She graduated in journalism from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. After living for several years in the capital, Porto Alegre, she moved to the city of São Paulo, where she worked as a reporter for the O Estado de São Paulo newspapers and the Informática Hoje magazine.


In 2006, after realizing that she wanted to dedicate her time to writing poetry, she ended her career as a journalist in São Paulo and returned to Pelotas, her hometown. There, she finished writing what became her first book, Rilke Shake.


During the following years, Freitas began living abroad for brief periods in Holland, Bolivia, and Argentina. She lives with her partner, the singer and composer Juliana Perdigão, in Berlin, Germany.


Known in Brazil as a poet who addresses themes of feminism and everyday life, she has published three books of poetry:

  • Rilke Shake (São Paulo, 2007): Winner of the 2016 Best Translated Book Award, University of Rochester/USA, and finalist for the 2016 PEN Poetry Translation Prize.
  • um útero é do tamanho de um punho / a uterus is the size of a fist (2012): Winner of the 2012 Paulista Association of Art Critics Award for best poetry collection.
  • Canções de Atormentar / Songs of Torment (São Paulo, 2020)



Photo by Dirk Skiba / Companhia das Letras

See the poet's official website at https://angelica-freitas.com



PORTO ALEGRE, 2016 BY ANGÉLICA FREITAS



when you saw it on TV

those people queuing in the rain

at night on a road

on the border of a country that doesn't want them


and when you saw the bombs

fall on distant cities

with those houses and streets

so dirty and so different


and when you saw the police

in the square of the foreign country

attack the protesters

with tear gas bombs


you didn't think twice

nor change the channel

and went to get food

in the fridge


you didn't notice what was coming

that it was just a matter of time

you didn’t interpret the news as a sign

you didn’t need to stock up on groceries


now the spoon falls from the mouth

and the sound of a bomb is outside

and the police come after your belongings

armed with swords, on horses



TRANSLATION BY ROSALIENE BACCHUS



PORTO ALEGRE, 2016 POR ANGÉLICA FREITAS



quando você viu na TV

aquelas pessoas em fila na chuva

à noite numa estrada

na fronteira de um país que não as deseja


e quando você viu as bombas

caírem sobre as cidades distantes

com aquelas casas e ruas

tão sujas e tão diferentes


e quando você viu a polícia

na praça do país estrangeiro

partir para cima dos manifestantes

com bombas de gás lacrimogêneo


não pensou duas vezes

nem trocou o canal

e foi pegar comida

na geladeira


não reparou o que vinha

que era só uma questão de tempo

não interpretou como sinal a notícia

não precisou estocar mantimentos


agora a colher cai da boca

e o barulho de bomba é ali fora

e a polícia vai para cima dos teus afetos

munida de espadas, sobre cavalos


SOURCE: Canções de Atormentar / Songs of Torment by Angélica Freitas, Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, Brazil, 2020.