Howdy, y'all. Apologies for the silence, but as you can probably imagine, given the overall tenor of 2020, time moves strangely and most of my attention has been elsewhere. After all, America is still being ravaged by COVID-19 due to a toxic combination of zero leadership, willful ignorance, and the stupidest form of individualism imaginable, and there's a fascist threatening to remain in the White House if and when his manque Baron Harkonnen ass is voted out, so I've been trying to stay healthy and do what I can to keep this country from gleefully sliding into an abyss lorded over by an even worse assortment of Bible-thumpers, capitalist vampires, and emotionally wounded reactionary swine than we already have.
Those same wretched figures, albeit in older Portuguese forms, appear to have ruined the career of Judith Teixeira (AKA Judite dos Reis Ramos Teixeira). A poet, writer, and publisher of a short-lived magazine called Europa, Teixeira's works were denounced by the Action League of Lisbon Students (Liga de Acção dos Estudantes de Lisboa)—a name that reeks of the particularly awful conservatism of the young—and subsequently ordered to be burned by the Lisbon government.
Why, you may ask, did these miserable children dislike Teixeira? Because she numbered among "the decadent artists, the poets of Sodom, the publishers, authors, and sellers of immoral books" due to lesbian subtext in her work. Judith Teixeira went on to live in obscurity until her death in 1959 at the age of 79. In a better world than ours, where people weren't slaves to rigid notions of family, country, and god, she may have gone on to write a lot more, and maybe even made a long-standing impact on LGBTQ literature in Portugal. Sadly, we'll never know.
I only recently learned of Teixeira's work, so I don't know if anyone else has translated her into English, but here's one of her poems, chosen for its seasonal relevance. I intend to translate more, too.
If you live in the US, go vote ASAP, and be prepared to step up if things get ugly after November 3. No matter where you live, remember that anti-fascism should be your default political position. If it isn't, ask yourself why, and fix it.
Abraço,
DAS
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"Outonais"
Judith Teixeira
No meu peito alvo, de neve,
as claras pétalas dos teus dedos,
finas e alongadas,
tombaram como rosas desfolhadas
à luz espásmica e fria
deste entardecer...
E o meu corpo sofre,
ébrio de luxúria, um mórbido prazer!
A cor viva dos teus beijos,
meu amor,
prolonga ainda mais o meu tormento,
na trágica dor
deste desvestir loiro e desolado
do Outono...
Repara agora, como o sol morre
num agónico sorrir
doloroso e lento!...
........................
Noite... um abismo...
sombras de medo!
Tumultuam mais alto os teus desejos!
Sobe o clamor do meu delírio
e a brasa viva dos teus beijos,
num rúbido segredo,
vai-me abrindo a carne em sulcos de martírio!
Entardecer — Janeiro
1925
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"Autumnal"
Judith Teixeira
On my snow-white breast,
the pale petals of your fingers,
long and slender,
fall like plucked roses
in the cold and spasmodic light
of this late afternoon...
And my body suffers,
drunk on lust, a morbid pleasure!
The bright color of your kisses,
my love,
further prolongs my torment,
in the tragic pain
of this blonde and bereft undressing
of Autumn...
See now how the sun dies
with an agonized smile,
painful and slow!...
........................
Night... an abyss...
Frightful shadows!
Your desires in a greater uproar!
The clamor of my delirium rises
and the glowing coal of your kisses,
in a red secret,
opens my flesh in furrows of martyrdom!
Sunset — January
1925
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