Brazil - Elizabeth Bishop

Song for the rainy season

 

Hidden oh hidden

in the high fog

the house we live in

beneath the magnetic rock,

rain-, rainbow-ridden

where blood-black

bromélias, lichens,

owls, and the lint

of the waterfalls cling,

familiar, unbidden.

 

In a dim age

of water

the brook sings loud

from a rib cage

of giant fern; vapor

climbs up the thick growth

effortlessly, turns back,

holding them both,

house and rock,

in a private cloud.

 

At night, on the roof,

blind drops crawl

and the ordinary brown

owl gives us proof

he can count:

five times–always five–

he stamps and takes off

after the fat frogs that,

shrilling for love,

clamber and mount.

 

House, open house

to the white dew

and the milk-white sunrise

kind to the eyes,

to membership

of silver fish, mouse,

bookworms,

big moths; with a wall

for the mildew’s

ignorant map;

 

darkened and tarnished

by the warm touch

of the warm breath,

maculate, cherished,

rejoice! For a later

era will differ.

(O difference that kills,

or intimidates, much

of all our small shadowy

life!) Without water

 

the great rock will stare

unmagnetized, bare,

no longer wearing

rainbows or rain,

the forgiving air

and the high fog gone;

the owls will move on

and the several

waterfalls shrivel

in the steady sun.

 

Sítio da Alcobaçinha

Fazenda Samambaia

Petrópolis

 

(do livro “Elizabeth Bishop / The complete poems: 1927-1979”, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)