Elide V. Oliver

Elide V. Oliver professes Brazilian Literature and Writing in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis USA. Her recent publications include a review of Fernando Pessoa and Co., Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Richard Zennith and Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies, published by the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as well as The Third Bank of the River. Time-flow and Paternity in João Guimarães Rosa (with reflections on Carlos Drummond de Andrade and James Joyce), published by The Modern Humanities Research Association, Portuguese Studies, London.

Published on 11/16/2001

        It is old the cold ground, the mound
        Stranger to the Viking soul
        Who sails on a boat
        And ends consumed in fire,
        The pyre of scented sandal
        Turns into ashes blood and bone

        It is old the cold ground, the mound
        Stranger to the Viking soul
        Who sails on a boat
        And ends consumed in fire,
        The pyre of scented sandal
        Turns into ashes blood and bone
        In heathen rites of mourn.

        I chose for myself this dome
        Of brick and stone where the sky
        Hangs above in duplication;
        And I shall have nuns
        Saying prayers every hour
        To keep my memory from annihilation.

        Here sheltered in blue
        Shooting stars shining above
        Florescence of a million
        Fragmented glasses united
        In divine design, one knows
        In all transparency, one can
        Lay in final respite.

Copyright © Elide Valarini Oliver, 2001. All Rights Reserved.