hugh fox
Hugh Fox was born in Chicago in 1932. He has his Ph.D.from the U. of Illinois, has taught at Loyola in Los Angeles, the U. of Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico, the Instituto Pedagogico and the Universidad Catholico in Caracas, the U. of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil, and for some 35 years was a professor at Michigan State U. He has some 85 books published, poetry, archaeology, criticism, novels, literary and cultural history, and more. He met his third wife Maria Bernadete Costa in Brazil in 1978. They've been married for 28 years. He was the founder and Board of Directors member of COSMEP, the International Organization of Independent Publishers, from 1968 until its death in 1996. Editor of Ghost Dance: The International Quarterly of Experimental Poetry from 1968-1995. Latin American editor of Western World Review & North American Review, during the 60's. Former contributing reviewer on Smith/ Pulpsmith, Choice etc. currently contributing reviewer to SPR and SMR. Listed in Who's Who: The Two Thousand Most Important Writers in the Last Millenium, Dictionary of Middlewestern Writers, and The International Who's Who. he was a friend of d.a. levy. Hughfoxy@aol.com
IMMORTALITY
1.
Tantos irmãoes, irmãs, sobrinhas, sobrinhos,
sobrinha-netas, sobrinho-netos, a sanidade das escrituras
velhas que dizem/disseram AUMENTE e MULTIPLIQUE,
ENCHA AS COLINAS e FLORESTAS COM SUA
PROGENIA, VOCES SAO BESTAS, MATO, FLORESTAS
MESMAS, passando as nóites escutando os jóvens universitários
falar de “Quero fazer filmes, eu gosto muito de Hitchcock, Fassbinder,
Renoir, Bergman, alguem tem que capturar as caras, a locura de
nosso tempo...,” o outro que fala de Frank Lloyd Wright, Gaudi, “Eu
gostaria de ir a Barcelona e copiar o pasado que torna a ser o
futuro...e possivelmente re-capturar o passado bem passado, tudo perdido, como covas onde a gente pode esconder-se da loucura econömicao o mundo fascista-terrorista actual.”
So many brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews,
grand-nieces, nephews, the sanity of old scriptures
that speak/spoke INCREASE AND MULTIPLY,
FILL THE HILLS AND FORESTS WITH YOUR PROGENY,
YOU ARE BEASTS, WEEDS, FORESTS,
filling the nights listening to the young (college-aged) ones talking,
“I want to make films, I like Hitchcock, Fassbinder, Renoir,
Bergman, someone has to capture the faces, the craziness of
our time..,” or the other talking about Frank Lloyd Wright,
Gaudi, “I’d like to go to Barcelona to copy the past that
re-becomes the future...and possibly capture the past really
past, everything lost, like caves where people can hide from
the economic and fascist-terrorist world around us.”
2.
O que aconteceu com a minha insonia, doce de laranja,
goiaba, doce de figo (de Campo Alegre, “Producto
Artesanal”), iogurte, cafe, pão primitivo, multi-grão,
granola, les colines, les colines, les colines (comme a Provence),
cheias de palmeiras, terrorism = 0, o medo de não comer
bem.
What happened to my insomnia, orange marmelade, guava,
fig marmelade (from Campo Alegre, labelled “Artesan Product”),
yogurt, coffee, primitive, multi-grained bread, granola ,
the hills, the hills, the hills (like Provence), full of palm-trees,
terrorism down to zero,
the fear of not eating well.
3.
“Sim, trabalho, sim não trabalho, que voy fazer?,” os gatos
dormindo, andando, explorando, procurando um lugar
longe de mim,um lugar mais cômodo para passar o tempo,
envolvidos em seus próprios Nadas/Tudos.
“Yes, I work, yes, I don’t work, what can I do?,” the cats
sleeping, walking around, exploring, looking for a place
far away from me, a more comfortable place to pass the time,
involved in their own Nothings/ Everythings.
4.
Andando na Rua Rodovia Amaro Antônio Viera com Bernadete,
so para andar (porque não somos com os gatos nunca ficam
entediados),uma mãe (50?), um pai (igual), dois filhos, um deles
com esposa (30’s), en nossa strada, en frente de un
Centro de Saude (bem abandonado), eu pergunto “Estou
procurando um Centro de Saude Mental porque minha
esposa acredita que ela é uma gata,” a mãe olhando
para Bernadete, responde, “E realmente uma gata,” todo
mundo sorri e Bernadete apos explica “Em Portugues
d’aqui uma gata é uma mulher bem sexy,” e
ela realmente (58) é.
Walking down the highway-street Amoro Antonio Viera with
Bernadete, because we need to take a walk (because we
aren’t like the cats who never get bored), a mother (50?),
a father (the same), two sons, one of them with a wife in
her thirties, on our street, in front of a very abandoned
Health Center, I ask “I’m looking for a Mental Health
Center because my wife thinks she’s a cat,” and the mother,
looking at Bernadete, answers, “She really is a cat,” everyone
laughs and Bernadete afterwards explains that “In Street
Portuguese a cat is a sexy woman,” and she really (58)
is.
5.
Les collines, les collines, les collines, suis-je un ange
ou un ame sem ailes que flotte toute l’eternité,
une nuage avec ventre avant de pleuvoir,
apres de quoi le ciele rest clair sans moi.
The hills, the hills, the hills, am I an angel
or a soul without wings that floats all eternity,
a cloud with a belly before raining, afterwards
the heavens all clear without me.
6.
Get ready for white cabbage-slaw, aipim
(like sweet potatoes without the sweetness)
couve/ collard greens, surrounded with hibiscus,
my wife’s sisters, Lourdes (Our Lady of Lourdes),
Nazaré (as in Jesus of Nazareth), Bettinha (as
in Elizabeth, but their first name Maria as in the
Virgin Mary), like my wife, Maria Bernadete (as
in Bernadette de Lourdes).
7.
Wrapping my wife’s family around my naked
only-child shoulders, in the late afternoon setting
sunlight beginning winter here as Michigan begins
summer, beginning summer for me too
HERE.
8.
Another million, another house here, another house
in Provence, the Hudson River Valley, Loire Valley,
valley-mountain, sun for breakfast, moon for dessert,
another million that buys Rest in
Zeroness.
9.
As escadas que sobem da praia acima,
dentro das colinas florestadas, a casas invisiveis,
vidas desconhecidas, mulher, homen, crianças já
idos, mas a sensualidade, cançoes, goiaba, pão
tostado, tainho, camaroes,
extase não.
The stairs that go up from the beach,
inside the forested hills, the invisible houses,
unknown lives, man, woman, children now
gone, but the sensuality, songs, guava, toasted
bread, tainho fish, shrimps,
no ecstasy.
10.
A gata vai a Bernadette deitada no sofa, ela
lhe rejeita, “Não, não!,” vem a filha comigo
deitada para a eternidade nas minhas mãoes
que a massageia hipnotizantemente.
The cat goes to Bernadette stretched out on the
sofa, she rejects it, “No, no!,” the cat’s daughter
with me, stretched out for eternity in my hands
that massage her hypnotically.
11.
O Dia da Mae e as crianças começam a chegar,
o neto/as netas brincam com o piano,brincam
com os gatos, a historia começa de novo,
Hansel et Gretal (em Portugues) na televisão,
2 geracoes de infinidade, estamos no seculo
+ ou - quanto? Existía a terra cheia de microbios
que andavam bem e falaram pelo menos quando jovem.
Mother’s Day and the kids begin to arrive,
the grandson/granddaughters play with the piano,
play with the cats, history begins all over again,
Hansel and Gretal (in Portuguese) on the TV,
two times generations of infinity, are we in
the plus or minus how-much century? Once upon
a time existed an earth full of microbios that walked well
and spoke, at least when they were young.
12.
So’ um ano cantando o canto da bougnvillea roxa escura
que canta tambem, como cantan os telhados
laranja-vermelhos, as palmeoras, a criançada pequena
e grande (Nineve e Mariana são agora M.D.’s), vamos a
tocar piano e comer ova de tainha, goiabada, estudar
a graça tecnicolor das borboletas.
Only a year singing about the dark purple bouganvillaea,
that also sings, like the orange-red roof tiles sing, the
palms, the little and big kids (Nineve and Mariana now M.D.’s),
let’s play piano and eat tainha eggs, guava pastem study the technicolor
grace of the butterflies.
13.
Gabriela, tres anos, cabelos pretos, cara que parece
de Meio Oriente (Lîbano), “Quantos anos que voce tem?”
pergunto, “Tres,’ “Trezentos?,” “Não...só tres!,” “e tem
asas escondidas embaixo da roupa?,” “Não,” “Mas, pode
voar?,” “Só no aviaõ...eu gosto de avioes...,” “Voce gostaria de
ir comigo onde vivo, no polo norte?,” “Não. Muito frio. E tenho
medo dos ursos...e gosta do tropico...,”
e ela me da pinhão para comer.
Gabriela, three years old, black hair, a face that looks like it’s
from the Middle East (Lebanon), “How old are you?,” I ask,
“Three,” “Three hundred?,” “No, only three!,” “And do you
have wings hidden under your clothes?,” “No,” “But can you
fly?,” “Only in a plane...I love planes..,” “Would you like to go
with me where I live, at the north pole?,” “No, too cold. And I’m
afraid of bears...I like the tropics...,”
and she gives me some pine seeds to eat.*
(*I should explain here that Brazilian eat pine-seeds, most of the time cooked.)
14.
O Dia das Maes, um montão de crianças, sobrinos, netos
por todos os lados, comemos a sobremesa, tapioca,
maracuja, sorvete de baunilha com chocolate bem
chocolatado, durmo na cadeira no jardim e quando
me levanto não sei onde estou, entro na casa cheia de pinturas
de meu cunhado ex-medico, agora pintor, tudo nudismo,,
estou morto ou em outro planeta, em uma outra existencia,
a lagoa fora de janela falando “Vem, vem, vem...,
estamos esperando-te faz tempo, tempo, tempo.”
Mother’s Day, a mountain of kids, nephews, grandkids
everywhere, we begin dessert, tapioca, passion fruit,
vanilla ice-cream with super-chocolate chocolate, I go
to sleep on a chair in the garden and when I get up I
don’t know where I am, go into the house full of paintings
by my ex-doctor brother-in-law, now painter, all nudes,
I’m dead and on another planet, in another existence,
the lagoon outside the window talking, “Come, come, come....
we’re waiting for you for a long, long,long time.....”
15.
As estrelas começam a entrar na casa para comer um pouco
de sorvete e falar com a criançada, lagoas, luas, galhinhos,
o universe de repente todo aqui, falando com o post-post-post-
tudo.
The stars begin to come into the house to eat a little
icecream and talk to the kids, lagoons, moons, branches,
the universe suddenly totally here, talking to the post-post-post
everything.
16.
Apos da Caida de São Paulo, rebeliao dos presos, mortos
por todos os lados, onibuses queimando, queimando as
linhas elétricas, porque comer as maças proibidas,
porque fumar os cigarros proibidos, pensar os
pensamentos proibidos, mas ainda o pecado original
não chega aqui e, o paraiso primitivo segue vivo, a gente
correndo/andando ao lado da estrada, Shell, Cafe
Damasco, Beira Mar Beer, McDonald’s, peneus, edificios
de apartmentos, pizzaria, Pietra -- Veste a Mulher Elegante,
lavanderia, Banco do Brasil,
e mar, mar, mar,
sempre mar.
After The Fall Sao Paulo, the rebellion of prisoners, dead
on all sides, buses burning, burning the electric lines, why
eat the forbidden apples, why smoke the forbidden cigars,
but still original sin doesn’t get here, the primitive paradise
stays alive, everyone running and walking at the side of the
highway, Shell, the Cafe Damascus, Seaside Beer, McDonald’s
highrise apartments, a pizzaria, Pietra’s --Clothes for the Elegant
Woman, a laundary, the Bank of Brazil,
and sea, sea, sea,
always sea.
17.
Passam seis meses e a gente se acostuma aos morros do ceu
e aos anges, tantos cabelos nebulosos, olhos estrelhados,
os benditos sempre sorridentes, paralizados com a alegria total,
um copo de creme Irlandes, uma hora para dormir,
sonhar com
o que?
Six months pass and you get used to the heaven hills
and the angels, so much misty hair, star-eyes,
the blessed always smiling, paralized with total happiness,
a glass of Irish creme, an hour to sleep,
dream about
what?
18.
Vem o otono, frutas, flores, árvores que lembran
outras vidas milhares de anos atrás, passarinhos celestes,
laranjas silvestres,fico sentado no banco do rio
e deixo o momento atual se tornar do tamanho
temporal/material do universo.
Autumn comes, fruits, flowers, trees that remember
other lives thousands of years in the past, celestial birds,
wild oranges, I stay sitting on the bank of the river
and let the present moment become the temporal/material
size of the universe.
19.
“Relaxe!,” digo aos nos passarinhos, as laranjas silvestres,
aos macacos, “sou somente mais uma lamina de grama,
uma outra folha/laranga silvestre pronto p’ra cair.”
“Relax!” I tell the birds and wild oranges, the monkeys,
“I’m just another blade of grass, another leave/wild orange
ready to fall.
20.
Eoudeitado no ponto mais alto no morro,
crianças brincando/gritando
na floresta, não sei onde,
um urubu preto enorme
numa árvore do outro lado do vale
embaixo de mim, não me importa nada
quem mata quem em otros lugares,
não tem nada que ver com
aqui, aqui, aqui.
Lying down on the highest point of the hill,
kids playing/screaming in the forest,
I don’t know where, a giant black vulture
in a tree on the other side of the valley
under me, it doesn’t make any difference
to me who is killing who in other places,
nothing to do with with here, here, here.
21.
O unico filho , eu, setornera unico velho,
mas me caso com a Bernadete e de repente minha vida
é cheia de um novo mundo ,Bernadete mesma,
suas irmãs Nazaréth, Lourdes, Betinha, Teresinha os irmãos
Paulo, Ariostinho, Ze, todos os seus filhos/filhas, netos/netas,
Luiz, para mim o que sempre esperei...a normalidade.
Only child me becomes the only old person,
but I marry Bernadete and suddenly my life
is full of a whole new world, Bernadete herself,
her sisters Nazaré, Lourdes, Bettinha, Teresinha,
her brothers Paulo, Ariostino, Ze, all their kids, grand-kids,
for me what I always waited for, expected....normality.
22.
Aqui tôda a familia, esposas, filhos, carreiras que começam
e terminam, as bolas do sol e da lua, o peixe, os novos
edificios, supermercados/”shoppings,” por todos os lados,
os gatos são gatos, a mae brinca com a filha, as vézes
quase luta, a gata mais velha representa a velhice, mas
nada mais, as prisões são cheias, as drogas chegam,
“gangs,” uma guerra contra a ordem social, porque fazer
drogas ilegais, porque não deixar todo mundo fazer
(tomar/fumar) o que quizer....
LEI CONTRA-LEI
as leis da vida/morte terrestrial/celestial...ça sufit.
Here everything family, spouses, children, careers that begin
and end, the balls of the sun and moon, fish, the new buildings,
supermarkets/ shopping malls, everywhere the cats and cats,
the mother plays with the daughter, somtimes they almost fight,
the old cat plays the part of age, but nothing else, the prisons
are full, the drugs arrive, “gangs,” a war against the social order
why make drugs illegal, why not just let everyone do (eat/drink)
whatever they want....
LAW OUTLAW
the laws of terrestrial-celestial life-death.....ça sufit.*
(* Ça sufit -- That’s enough. )
23.
As sempre maças proibidas do Arvore Celeste no Jardim
do Paraiso murmurando “Come-me, come-me, come-me,”
mas elimina a probicão e a gente as comeriam e elas se tornariam
as maças da verdadeira imortalidade.
The forbidden apples on the Heaven-Tree in the Garden
of Paradise always whispering, “Eat me, eat me, eat me,”
but take away the prohibition and everyone would eat them
and they’d become the apples of true immortality.
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