Now it is our work to say that there shall be
a reburgeoning of lemongrass, boldo, and mint
for the kidneys, livers, intestines of the family
now half-dead, though salt be sown on the earth
of orchards taken over by the lender,
and say it in rhythms proper to the lullaby.
And that grandmother’s hands will break the necks
of chickens in the yard for pirão to feed
for days the women in post-partum rest
whose births repay the family for its wakes,
even if there remain of those wrinkles only carpals
and metacarpals calcium-white in the family plot.
And that dead grandfather will return in dream
and rail until the flag of the nation change color
against these denatured ones who never cease
to raise disgust in those before who crossed
the ocean to misfortune much more profound
than a change of passport and background vegetation.
And it is our work to say that grandparents kidnapped
overseas shall manumit themselves in our bodies
and that our ancestors on this side of the Atlantic
shall retake their share of black soil and together
amid the mint, boldo, and lemongrass, pass hand
to hand the cup of health that passed us over.
Household Chores
Ricardo Domeneck
translated from the Portuguese by Chris Daniels
Read the original in Portuguese
Listen to the poem read in the original Portuguese by the poet:
Ricardo Domeneck was born in Bebedouro (São Paulo), Brazil, in 1977. He is a poet, short-fiction writer, and essayist. He has published six volumes of poetry: Carta aos anfíbios (2005), a cadela sem Logos (2007), Sons: Arranjo: Garganta (2009), Cigarros na cama (2011), Ciclo do amante substituível (2012), and Medir com as próprias mãos a febre (2015). In prose, he has published Manual para melodrama (2016). His poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in magazines in Brazil and abroad. He has performed his video and sound poetry in galleries and museums such as Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro), Museo Experimental El Eco (Mexico City), and Bozar (Brussels), and has prepared a billboard piece for the Biennial of the Americas 2013 (Denver). He has collaborated with Brazilian and German musicians such as Tetine, Markus Nikolaus (Lea Porcelain), Uli Buder (Akia), and Nelson Bell (Crooked Waves). A bilingual anthology of his poems was published in Germany with the title Körper: ein Handbuch (2013), translated by Odile Kennel, and in the Netherlands with the title Het Verzamelde Lichaam (2015), translated by Bart Vonck. His book Ciclo do amante substituível was published in Aníbal Cristobo’s translation by Kriller71 Ediciones (2014). Ricardo Domeneck lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Chris Daniels is an independent, self-taught (feral) translator of worldwide Lusophone poetry. He was born on Manhattan Island in 1956 and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980. He never went to college. His translations include: The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa and The Collected Poems of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando Pessoa, vol. 2 (both published by Shearsman Books; vol. 1 of Campos has been forthcoming for some time); and On the Shining Screen of the Eyelids by Josely Vianna Baptista (Manifest Press). His translations have been published widely in print and online in the US and elsewhere. He lives in Oakland.
