Nov 7, 2025
The velvet of the dark.
ASTRID CABRAL — Cage, transl. by Alexis Levitin, (2008)
seen from United States
seen from Philippines
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Japan
seen from T1
seen from T1
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from United States
The velvet of the dark.
ASTRID CABRAL — Cage, transl. by Alexis Levitin, (2008)
Astrid Cabral, Spotlight on the Word, Translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin, World Poetry Books, New York, NY, 2026 [Asterism Books, Seattle, WA]
selected crônicas: "excess and privation"
the hour of the star
a breath of life
the passion according to g.h. (tr. idra novey)
água viva
near to the wild heart
um sopro de vida (tr. johnny lorenz)
soulstorm: stories: “miss algrave” (tr. alexis levitin)
the hour of the star (tr. benjamin moser)
a breath of life
words by clarice lispector
Seek them in secret villainies, in the funk of discord.
*
from “The Living Dead” by Salgado Maranhão (translated by Alexis Levitin)
You, who saw the color of the unconscious.
SALGADO MARANHÃO — Sol Sangüíneo | Blood of the Sun, transl. by Alexis Levitin, (2012)
The blade that couples with the ecstasy of vertigo. The poem-flesh, bound with nails […] breaks against the sea that drowns us.
SALGADO MARANHÃO — Sol Sangüíneo | Blood of the Sun, transl. by Alexis Levitin, (2012)
The more I age, the more I learn to lose my fear. All beasts grow tender.
ASTRID CABRAL — Cage, transl. by Alexis Levitin, (2008)
Though blood may dry in darkened alleyways, it cannot hide the throbbing of our days, and even if gun barrels glistening bright (amongst the leaves of restless, rustling night) paint savage earth in colors sickly pale, the gaze, intact, exalts both sea and sail: and something pushes forward in its greed, as might a womb, torn by its yearning need. Fingerprints of time, lean and hungry days, epiphanies within the daily fray; rites of passage to utter nothingness, or else volcanic lava that, in stillness of fevered thoughts that rise above all stigma, sets life afire with flaming, flowery magma.
SALGADO MARANHÃO — Sol Sangüíneo | Blood of the Sun, for Reynaldo Valinhos Alvarez & Moacyr Félix, transl. by Alexis Levitin, (2012)