The Cátedra Natália Correia at the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) at Fresno State continues to commemorate the 100th birthday of poet Natália Correia by publishing weekly segments in English translation dedicated to her work.

the refusal of the evident images IV

There are nights that are made of my arms
And a silence common to violets.
And there are seven moons that are seven traces
Of seven nights that were never made.
There are nights that we carry around our waist
Like a belt of great butterflies.
And a blood streak in our dark flesh
Like a sword in a comet’s hem.
There are nights that leave us behind
Curled up in our disenchantment
And white swans are only equal
To the farthest wave of their song.
There are nights that take us where
The ghost within us is closest;
And it is always our voice that answers
And only our name was right.
There are nights that are lilies and are beasts
And the accuracy of our vile rose
Reconciles in the cold of the spheres
The stars look at each other in silhouette.

Translated by Diniz Borges