The Insect

There´s a green beetle inside my brain it never stops gnawing you would think by now it´d break free through one of the many holes but I will. There´s eaten brain inside the green beetle this is what the insect needs. The brain mucus compresses the insect it also hurts me. It hurts when I try to break it free from my brain through the hole. I tried to break it from inside my head. There´s nothing there now but the green beetle. The insect crawls under my cheekbones and makes me smile. I tried to break away from the insect and to break free of the brain. There´s nothing there now. There´s only eaten brain inside the green beetle, it is a sour meat. One day, my head will hatch into an egg and I will fly away like a bird. 
(Paduke)

Es fama que le preguntaron a Whistler cuánto tiempo había requerido para pintar uno de sus nocturnos y que respondió: «Toda mi vida». Con igual rigor pudo haber dicho que había requerido todos los siglos que precedieron al momento en que lo pintó. De esa correcta aplicación de la ley de causalidad se sigue que el menor de los hechos presupone el inconcebible universo e, inversamente, que el universo necesita del menor de los hechos. Investigar las causas de un fenómeno, siquiera de un fenómeno tan simple como la literatura gauchesca, es proceder en infinito (...). Borges, Discusión, 1932.

"The tragedy, proclaimed, as they made their way up the crescent of the drive, no less by the gaping potholes in it than by the tall exotic plants, livid and crepuscular through his dark glasses, perishing on every hand of unnecessary thirst, staggering, it almost appeared, against one another, yet struggling like dying voluptuaries in a vision to maintain some final attitude of potency, or of a collective desolate fecundity, the Consul thought distantly, seemed to be reviewed and interpreted by a person walking at his side suffering for him and saying: (...)." Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry.

Sing amnesiac

It wouldn’t be so hard to describe life by its little deficiencies. We can only suppose and miss, talking ourselves into everyone, simply not to be, inventing better schemes to lose our days, implying moments of importance, turning sickness into memories. As each and everyone does it, taking buses, driving cars, turning their heads to listen, averting eyes. Only by second guessing and poor hearing could I reach others, and only in error could I expel these words, uttering sounds that made no sense to nobody else. People bruised me in anger, in anxiety, for lack of space. Then, they went away saying sorry, and what else they knew much how to say, they kept saying until the end. Life could not be otherwise, and shine through these misshapen moments its light. We come to lay those sicknesses by prose, and rest our heads against the written word. Memories ravels - imperfection forgiving, memories come shocking, flashing waves and then nothing, forgetting.
(Paduke)

Os que viram a Carcaça

Roberto Piva (1962)

A máquina de matar o tempo
Aqui nós investimos contra a alma imortal dos gabinetes.
Procuramos amigos que não sejam sérios: os macumbeiros, os loucos confidentes, imperadores desterrados, freiras surdas, cafajestes com hemorróidas e todos que detestam os sonhos incolores da poesia das Arcadas.
Nós sabemos muito bem que a ternura de lacinhos é um luxo protozoário. 
Sede violentos como uma gastrite. Abaixo as borboletas douradas. 
Olhai o cintilante conteúdo das latrinas. 

The time-killing machine

Here we invest against the immortal soul of cabinets. 
We look for friends that are not serious:  the mundunugus, the confidant fools, banished emperors, deaf nuns, schmucks with hemorrhoids and all who loathe the colorless dreams of Arcadyan poetry.
We know all too well the tenderness of tiny little ties is a protozoan luxury.
Be violent like a gastritis. Down with the golden butterflies.
Behold the sparkling substance of the latrines.

(Translation: Paduke)

Os que viram a Carcaça

Roberto Piva (1962)

Bules, Bílis e Bolas

Nós convidamos todos a se entregarem a dissolução e ao desregramento. A Vida não pode sucumbir no torniquete da Consciência. A Vida explode sempre no mais além. Abaixo as faculdades e que triunfem os maconheiros. É preciso não ter medo de deixar irromper a nossa Alma Fecal. Metodistas, psicólogos, advogados, engenheiros, estudantes, patrões, operários, químicos, cientistas, contra vós deve estar o espírito da juventude. Abaixo a Segurança Pública, quem precisa disso? Somos deliciosamente desorganizados e usualmente nos associamos com a Liberdade. 

Boilers, Bile and Balls 

We invite all to give into dissolution and debauchery. Life can not succumb to Conscience's tourniquet. Life ever explodes beyond. Down with colleges and glory to the potheads. It is necessary not to be afraid of letting our Fecal Soul emerge. Methodists, psychologists, lawyers, engineers, students, bosses, workers, chemists, scientists, against ye must be youth's spirit. Down with Public Security, who needs it? We are deliciously disorganized and usually associate ourselves with Freedom. 

(Translation: Paduke)

Os que viram a Carcaça
Roberto Piva (1962)

O Minotauro dos Minutos
Os pontos cardeais de nossos elementos são: a traição, a não-compreensão da utilidade das vidraças, a violência montanha russa do Totem, o rompimento com os labirintos e nervuras do pinico estreito da Lógica, contra vosso êxtase açucarado, vós como cães sentis necessidade do infinito, nós o curto-circuito, a escuridão e o choque somos contra a mensagem lírica do mimo, contra as lantejoulas pelos caracóis, contra a vagina pelo ânus, contra os espectros pelos fantasmas, contra as escadas pelas ferrovias, contra Eliot pelo Marquês de Sade, contra polenta pelo ragu, nós estamos perfeitamente esquizofrênicos, paranoicamente cientes de que devemos nos afastar da Bandeira das Treze Listas cujos representantes são as bordadeiras de poesia que estão espalhadas por toda a cidade.

The Minotaur of Minutes

The cardeal points of our elements are: the betrayal, the obliviousness of glass pane`s utility, the violence-roller-coaster of Totem, the rupture with the labyrinths and nerves of the narrow pisspot of Logic, against thy sugary ecstasy, thou like dogs feel necessity of infinity, we, the short-circuit, we the gloom and shock are against mime's lyrical message, against sequins for snails, against vagina for anus, against specters for ghosts, against stairs for railways, against Eliot for Marquis de Sade, against polenta for ragu, we are perfectly schizophrenic, paranoiacally aware that we must wean ourselves from the Flag of Thirteen Stripes whose delegates are the seamstresses of poetry that are scattered all around the city. 

(Translation: Paduke)

“Jemmy recognised the stentorian voice of one of his brothers at a prodigious distance. The meeting was less interesting than that between a horse, turned out into a field, when he joins an old companion. There was no demonstration of affection; they simply stared for a short time at each other; and the mother immediately went to look after her canoe.”

Charles Darwin. The Voyage of The Beagle. 1839

“But when I behold a lump of deformity and diseases both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of my patience; neither shall I be ever able to comprehend how such an animal and such a vice could tally together. The wise and virtuous Houyhnhnms, who abound in all excellencies that can adorn a rational creature, have no name for this vice in their language, which hath no terms to express any thing that is evil, except those whereby they describe the detestable qualities of their Yahoos, among which they were not able to distinguish this of pride, for want of thoroughly understanding human nature, as it showeth itself in other countries, where that animal presides.”

 Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels. 1726

“Someone once said that beneath or behind all political and cultural warfare lies a struggle between secret societies. Another author suggested that the Nursery Rhyme and the book of Science Fiction might be more revolutionary than any number of tracts, pamphlets, manifestoes of the political realm.”