Irra, irra, irra, xiça, cruzes, %$"$#$&, PÁ!

Porra que agora tá mesmo frio!

Passou-me a branca.



Ode ao Catorze Que Vem

Pra mim
Valentim
rima com Halloween

Normalmente
Penso em gente
Que já não sente

Tal e qual
Como no Natal
Não me vou sentir mal.



(isto está a assumir um contorno estranho)

Estou a atravessar uma branca. Verti, debitei, criei que me fartei, e agora preciso de uns dias em viagem por terras d'outrem.


O que vamos fazer amanhã
neste caso de amor desesperado?
ouvir música romântica
ou trepar pelas paredes acima?

amarfanhar-nos numa cadeira
ou ficar fixamente diante
de um copo de vinho ou de uma ravina?
o que vamos fazer amanhã

que não seja um ajuste de contas?
o que vamos fazer amanhã
do que mais se sonhou ou morreu?
numa esquina talvez te atropelem,

num relvado talvez me fuzilem
o teu corpo talvez seja meu,
mas que vamos fazer amanhã
entre as árvores e a solidão?

- Vasco Graça Moura

What a Hell, One Would Say

What the hell, one would say
and order another carafe of wine.
Wasn't it at 4 p.m. that
the artistic heart passed away?
The hollow sounds of bells,
those are the empty poems I know.


There is only one I hold dear,
a Requiem as yet
untouched.


For some time I've lived off
poison and hate, loathing and laughter,
and pain as
my only comfort.
Ah, but I still laugh
at these fools.
You with your round faces,
and yet: I am alive.


-Srecko Kosovel, trad. Katarina Jerin

Neve

Neve bella
fatta a stella
bianca neve
lieve lieve
vienmi in mano
piano piano.
Sei per poco
dolce gioco.
Dolce gioco
in mille fiocchi
che mi frullan
sotto gli occhi.

- Ada Negri

(thanx, Grace)

(quero o Tempeste)

A princípio é simples anda-se sozinho
passa-se nas ruas bem devagarinho
está-se bem no silêncio e no borborinho
bebem-se as certezas num copo de vinho
vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida

Pouco a pouco o passo faz-se vagabundo
dá-se a volta ao medo dá-se a volta ao mundo
diz-se do passado que está moribundo
bebe-se o alento num copo sem fundo
e vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida

E é então que amigos nos oferecem leito
entra-se cansado e sai-se refeito
luta-se por tudo o que leva a peito
bebe-se come-se e alguém nos diz bom proveito
e vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida


Depois vem cansaços e o corpo fraqueja
olha-se para dentro e já pouco sobeja
pede-se um descanso por curto que seja
apagam-se as dúvidas num mar de cerveja
e vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida

Enfim duma escolha faz-se um desafio
enfrenta-se a vida de fio a pavio
navega-se sem mar sem vela ou navio
bebe-se a coragem até dum copo vazio
e vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida

E entretanto o tempo fez cinza da brasa
outra maré cheia virá da maré vaza
nasce um novo dia e no braço outra asa
brinda-se aos amores com o vinho da casa
e vem-nos à memória uma frase batida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida
hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da tua vida

Case studies, tomo X

Enver Hoxha [en-vehr hoj-e]

(October 16, 1908–April 11, 1985) was the communist leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death, primarily as the First Secretary of the Albanian Party of Labour. He was also prime minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1946 to 1953. Under Hoxha, whose rule was characterized by isolation from the rest of Europe and firm adherence to Stalinism, Albania emerged from semi-feudalism to become an industrialized state.



Hoxha was dismissed from his teaching post following the 1939 Italian invasion of World War II for refusing to join the Albanian Fascist Party. He opened a tobacco shop in Tiranë where soon a small communist group started gathering. He was helped by Yugoslav communists to found and become leader of the Albanian Communist Party (called Party of Labour afterwards) in November 1941, as well as the resistance movement (National Liberation Army), which took power in November 1944.

Hoxha declared himself an orthodox Marxist-Leninist and strongly admired Joseph Stalin. He adopted the model of the Soviet Union and severed relations with his former Yugoslav communist allies following their ideological breach with Moscow in 1948. He had defence minister Koçi Xoxe (pron. Kochi Dzodze) executed a year later for alleged pro-Yugoslav activities.

Hoxha confiscated farmland from wealthy landowners and consolidated it into collective farms (Cooperatives) that eventually enabled Albania to become almost completely self-sufficient in food crops. He also developed the industry and brought electricity to most rural areas, and epidemics of disease and illiteracy were stamped out. Worried about an invasion from the Soviet bloc, Italy or the United States, from 1950 Hoxha authorised the construction of thousands of one-man concrete bunkers across the country, to act as look outs and gun emplacements, possibly numbering in excess of 500,000.



In 1967, following two decades of progressively harsher persecution of religion under his rule, Hoxha triumphantly declared his nation to be the first atheist state in history. Partially inspired by China's Cultural Revolution, he proceeded to confiscate mosques, churches, monasteries, and shrines. Many were immediately razed, others turned into machine shops, warehouses, stables, and movie theaters. Parents were forbidden to give their children religious names. Anyone caught with the Qur'an, Bibles, icons, or religious objects faced long prison sentences. In the south, where the ethnic Greek population was concentrated, villages named after saints were given secular names.

According to a landmark Amnesty International report published in 1984 Albania's human rights record was dismal under Hoxha. The regime denied its citizens freedom of expression, religion, movement, and association although the constitution of 1976 ostensibly guaranteed each of these rights. In fact, certain clauses in the constitution effectively circumscribed the exercise of political liberties that the regime interpreted as contrary to the established order. In addition, the regime tried to deny the population access to information other than that disseminated by the government-controlled media. The Sigurimi routinely violated the privacy of persons, homes, and communications and made arbitrary arrests. The courts ensured that verdicts were rendered from the party's political perspective rather than affording due process to the accused, who were occasionally sentenced without even the formality of a trial.



Later, Hoxha withdrew into semiretirement and turned most state functions over to Ramiz Alia. Hoxha's death on April 11, 1985 led to some relaxation in internal and foreign policies under his successor Ramiz Alia, as communist party rule weakened throughout Eastern Europe, culminating in Albania's abandonment of one-party rule in 1990 and the reformed Socialist Party's defeat in the 1992 elections.

Garland Greene: What if I told you insane was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn’t you consider that to be insane?

Keating: Now I'd like you to step forward over here. They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? --- Carpe --- hear it? --- Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

Harry: I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

---xxx---

Harry: You were going to be a gymnast.
Sally: A journalist.
Harry: Right, that's what I said.

---xxx---

Sally: Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous, and I had these days of the week underpants.
Harry: Ehhhh! I'm sorry. I need the judges ruling on this. "Days of the weeks underpants"?
Sally: Yes. They had the days of the week on them, and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, "You never wear Sunday." It was all suspicious. Where was Sunday? Where had I left Sunday? And I told him, and he didn't believe me.
Harry: What?
Sally: They don't make Sunday.
Harry: Why not?
Sally: Because of God.

Case studies, tomo IX

Jean-Bedel Bokassa[zhAN-bedel´ bOkAs´sA]

1921–96, president of Central African Republic (1966–79). He served (1939–61) in the French army, then organized his country's army, becoming commander in chief in 1963. In 1966 he led an army coup against President David Dacko, becoming president and prime minister of the republic. Declared president for life in 1972, he crowned himself "emperor" of the so-called Central African Empire in 1977. Erratic and violent, he was overthrown by a French-supported coup (1979) that reinstated Dacko as president. Bokassa lived in exile in France and COte d'Ivoire, returning to the Central African Republic in 1987. He was arrested and charged with torture, murder, and cannibalism. Convicted of murdering several political opponents, Bokassa was sentenced to death, but that was later commuted to life in prison. He was released in 1993.

"Embers", Howard Hersh

Caraças, ou este.

O que eu dava para apanhar isto a jeito de ser gravado.

Because I could not stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

- Emily Dickinson

A Gracinha está doente. As melhoras para a Gracinha. Cházinho de limão e bolachas com um cobertor quente e hirsuto.

Quando tou de molho revejo isto.

Now playing

Robert Heaton, 1961-2004

The Full Monty, dos raríssimos filmes rotulados como "comédia" que me prenderam ao sofá e ao copo.

Ya no seré feliz. Tal vez no importa.
Hay tantas otras cosas en el mundo;
un instante cualquiera es más profundo
y diverso que el mar. La vida es corta

y aunque las horas son tan largas, una
oscura maravilla nos acecha,
la muerte, ese otro mar, esa otra flecha
que nos libra del sol y de la luna

y del amor. La dicha que me diste
y me quitaste debe ser borrada;
lo que era todo tiene que ser nada.

Sólo que me queda el goce de estar triste,
esa vana costumbre que me inclina
al Sur, a cierta puerta, a cierta esquina.

- Jorge Luis Borges


(e no entanto já sinto o inverso)

Lament for Marja

Is it not the best of joys
When being a pyre of loss
Our downfall brings heaven to her?