AUTHOR ROSALIENE BACCHUS


Reaching minds and hearts through storytelling



I KNOW YOU BY YOUR SCENT BY BRAZILIAN POET RICARDO ALEIXO



RICARDO ALEIXO is a Brazilian poet, essayist, and multimedia artist-performer. Born in 1960 in Belo Horizonte, capital of the southeastern State of Minas Gerais, he is considered one of the most innovative Brazilian contemporary poets. His work is found in national and international collections. As a multimedia performer, he has presented his work across Brazil and overseas: Angola, Argentina, France, Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.


Aleixo is the curator of the International Black Art Festival (FAN) in Belo Horizonte. His productions reveal a constant pursuit for the union between words and images, exploring the "visuality" and "vocality" of poetry through performance and music.


His collections of poetry include the following:

  • Ainda Quanto a Você / Still About You (2025)
  • Tornei de Luanda uma kota / Returned from Luanda an elder (2024)
  • Diário da Encruza / Crossroad Journal (2022) – finalist Oceanos Prize for Poetry
  • Extraquadro / Extra-framework (2021) – finalist Jabuti Award
  • Pesada demais para a ventania: antología poética / Too heavy for the wind: Poetic Anthology (2018)
  • Antiboi / Anti-Bull (2017) – finalist Oceanos Prize for Poetry
  • Impossível como nunca ter tido um rosto / Impossible as never having had a face (2015)
  • Mundo palavreado / Idle Talk World (2013)
  • Modelos Vivos / Live Models (2010) – finalist Telecom Portugal Prize & 2011 Jabuti Award
  • Céu Inteiro / Whole Sky (2008)
  • Máquina Zero / Machine Zero (2004)
  • A Aranha Ariadne / The Spider Ariadne (2003)
  • Trívio: Poemas / Trivia: Poems (2001)
  • Quem Faz O Que? / Who Does What? (1999)
  • A Roda do Mundo / The Wheel of the World (1996) with Edimilson de Almeida Pereira
  • Festim / Feast (1992)

Aleixo lives in Belo Horizonte and is a member of the Academy of Letters of Minas Gerais. In 2010, the Ministry of Education awarded him the Literature for All Award in Poetry. In 2021, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) awarded him the title of Notório Saber / Notable Knowledge, equivalent to a doctoral degree.



Photo of poet by Rafael Motta for Culturadoria, Brazil.



I KNOW YOU BY YOUR SCENT BY RICARDO ALEIXO



I know you

by your scent,

by your clothes,

by your cars,

by your rings and,

of course,

by your love of money.


By your love

of money

that some

distant ancestor

left you

as inheritance.


I know you

by your scent.


I know you

by your scent

and by the dollar signs

that embellish

your eyes that

hardly blink

for your

love of money.


For your love

of money

and all that

negates life:

the asylum, the

cell, the border.


I know you

by your scent.


I know you

by the scent

of pestilence and horror

that spreads

wherever you go

—I know you

by your love

of money.


Under your love

of money,

God is a

father so cheap

he charges for his miracles.


I know you

by your scent.




I KNOW YOU BY YOUR SCENT BY RICARDO ALEIXO continued



I know you

by the scent,

of sulfur,

which you can’t mask

which clings to

all that you touch

for the love

of money.


For your love

of money,

you respond

with loathing

to a smile,

to pleasure,

to poetry.


I know you

by your scent.


I know you

by your scent.

Smell one of you and

I’ve smelled all

of you who

survive only

by your love

of money.


For the love

of money,

you turn even

your own daughters

to hard currency,

to pure gold.


I know you

by your scent.


I know you

by your scent.

I know you

by the stench

of your rotting

corpse that

somehow

walks

for its love

of money.


SOURCE: Pesada demais para a ventania: antología poética / Too heavy for the wind: Poetic Anthology by Ricardo Aleixo, published by Editora Todavia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2018.

Translation by Dan Hanrahan, published in the December 2018 issue of Words Without Borders.