Brazilian Translations from Hilary Kaplan

Great translations of Brazilian poet Angélica Freitas, translated by Hilary Kaplan in the latest Granta magazine.

And a beautiful story from Gonçalo M. Tavares on life in Rio de Janeiro in Granta:

And that’s all there is to it: in Rio de Janeiro the average distance between humans is shorter. And that carries enormous consequences.

When I walk through Rio de Janeiro, I see moving human spots. It’s the only city, even in Brazil, where skin colour truly doesn’t exist. In other cities, when a white man and a black man walk side by side, even in strong and most excellent companionship, I see the black and I see the white. Not in Rio. In Rio, there are spots of people. After a spot of two, a blot of four, another of six, only with great effort will I be able to make out the colours (like an amateur art critic). Out of those spots come – and we realize this only with great effort, almost artificially – a black man, a mixed race man and a white man (for example).

The average distance between two people, then: the smallest in the world.

Read Tavares' story here
Read Tavares' story in Portuguese

And here are the two poems by Angélica Freitas, translated by Hilary Kaplan:

from "Artichoke":

the bearded lady simply didn’t feel

the need to discuss

every little everyday thing

Who can resist a poem with a bearded lady? Put that in your artichoke and smoke it.

Read "Artichoke" here

from "woman is a construct":

woman is basically meant
to be a residential complex
all the same
all plastered over
just in different colors

Geesh, I hope not!

Read "woman is a construct" here from Angélica Freitas, translated by Hilary Kaplan

I Want the Plasma

Because no one can hold me back now. I can still reason—I studied mathematics, which is the madness of reason—but now I want the plasma—I want to eat straight from the placenta.

—Clarice Lispector from Agua Viva

Água Mole, Cidade Dura - São Paulo Graffiti Art on the Drought

Graffiti artist Thiago Mundano has a show on July-August 2015 in São Paulo at the King Cap Graffiti Shop & Gallery about the water crisis in São Paulo and beyond. The show title, "Água Mole, Cidade Dura" could be translated as "Soft Water, Hard City." Many of his images are from the sertão, the desert-scrubland in the interior. The sertão includes areas which are devastated by the lack of water, causing agricultural workers to consider migrating to the cities as a result of the failure of crops. See the video Brief video of Graffiti artist Mundano

Canvases are so green, when his subject is the lack of green due to the drought.

This painting shows protesters holding up various signs related to the lack of water, imposed reductions in water use, and the hydroelectric plant crisis. One sign says: "Water isn't Merchandise."

A painting shows a cactus in the sertão with a faucet attached to it and a mug below. Behind, the land is dry and cracked. And in the distance, the city in horizon.

See the video Brief video of Graffiti artist Mundano

Read more in English on Mundano's art and the São Paulo water crisis

Beautiful Bees at Full Belly Farm in Guinda, CA

Here's a pretty video on diversifying crops--varying hedgerows of flowers with different vegetables--in order to keep bees alive and healthy. UC Berkeley's Claire Kremen makes her point well when she asks, "You wouldn't want to have to eat almonds all day, would you?" She's referring to the fact that 80% of the world's almonds are grown in California, and bees are trucked the length of the state in order to pollinate crops. So many of them die along the way--increasingly more.

Instead, at Full Belly Farm in Guinda, depicted in this very pretty video, they choose to carefully plant hedgerows of beautiful, varied flowers that the native (non-imported) Californian bees can sip on for a varied diet, thus keeping them healthy and content.

I haven't seen this many bees up close in a while, and I found their little golden bodies truly entrancing and endearing as they slowly sip the painted flowers. I liked seeing Mark Bittman, New York Times food critic, who's usually opinionated to the point of abrasive, dumbstruck by his fellow buzzing creatures.

I have to admit that I also didn't know the definition of a pollinator, which Kremen gives: it's any animal--moth, bird--that transports pollen between the male and female parts of the flower. This sounds like such an important job! A golden monk's duty. Thank you, bees. Dare I say that the bees at Full Belly Farm look very happy? Yes, I can tell a bee's expression--can't you?

Watch the bees at Full Belly Farm video here