Poem of the Month

Chosen by David Underdown

Sonnet of Intimacy

by Vinicius de Moraes

Farm afternoons, there’s much too much blue air.
I go out sometimes, follow the pasture track,
Chewing a blade of sticky grass, chest bare,
In threadbare pajamas of three summers back,

To the little rivulets in the river-bed
For a drink of water, cold and musical,
And if I spot in the brush a glow of red,
A raspberry, spit its blood at the corral.

The smell of cow manure is delicious.
The cattle look at me unenviously
And when there comes a sudden stream and hiss

Accompanied by a look not unmalicious,
All of us, animals, unemotionally
Partake together of a pleasant piss.

Vinicius de Moraes (1913 – 80) was born in Rio de Janeiro and nicknamed O Poetinha, the little poet. He was first and foremost a lyricist and pioneered the bossa nova. In this sonnet translated by a fellow alcoholic, Elizabeth Bishop, he captures perfectly the simple pleasures of hot, dusty afternoons and communion with animals.