Two Poems by Francisco Mallmann, translated from Portuguese by Robert Smith
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Translator’s Notes
1. The word língua (language) is feminine in Portuguese.
2. Like Spanish, French, and Italian, Portuguese conventionally uses masculine plural nouns, pronouns, and adjectives to refer to mixed gender groups.
3. Muitas: many (feminine plural declension)
4. Elas: the third-person plural feminine pronoun
5. Todas: all/everyone (feminine plural declension)
6. Todos: all/everyone (masculine plural declension)
7. Homem: man. The h being silent, the initial sound is an /o/.
8. The closing sentence in the original text (estejam preparadas), in addition to using only the vowels a and e, declines the adjective in the feminine plural.
Francisco Mallmann is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher who works in the intersection between poetry, dramaturgy, visual arts, performance, and criticism. He holds a Master’s in Philosophy from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. He is author of the award-winning poetry collection haverá festa com o que restar (Urutau, 2018) and the chapbook língua pele áspera (7Letras, 2019). Mallmann is artist-in-residence at Casa Selvática, editor of Bocas Malditas, member of the International Association of Theatre Critics, and coordinator of the Department of Temporary and Itinerary Exhibitions at the Curitiba Holocaust Museum.
Robert Smith’s translations have appeared in Anomaly, Asymptote, InTranslation, Journal of Italian Translation, New Poetry in Translation, and Two Lines.
