By JARID ARRAES
Translated by MARGUERITE ITAMAR HARRISON
tell me
about how tough everything is
and even the beer’s out of reach
and even writing has dried up
tell me
about sudden setbacks
and tight turns
about abandoned
books
exhibitions empty
of meaning
talk to me about the smothering
routine
with the same words
that are always
used
and about the grey city
the raging rivers
the kilo of costly
salt
that we eat
tell me
about high
temperatures and uncaring
hearts
about supermarket
connections
political
products
I want to hear
about the little things
the little bits
of life
that still resist
in you
Jarid Arraes was born in Juazeiro do Norte, in the Cariri region of Ceará, Northeast Brazil. Writer, cordelista (chapbook writer), and poet, she is the author of Redemoinho em dia quente (Whirlwind on a Torrid Day), Um buraco com meu nome (A Hole that Carries My Name), As lendas de Dandara (Legends of Dandara), and Heroínas Negras Brasileiras (Black Brazilian Heroines). Curator of the literary imprint Ferina, she currently lives in São Paulo, where she founded the Clube da Escrita Para Mulheres (Writing Club for Women). She has published over seventy chapbooks.
Marguerite Itamar Harrison, associate professor of Portuguese and Brazilian studies at Smith College, is a winner of the Sherrerd Prize for Distinguished Teaching. Her MA in Latin American art history is from UT Austin, and her PhD in Portuguese and Brazilian studies is from Brown University. In 2007 she edited Uma Cidade em Camadas on Brazilian writer Luiz Ruffato, and in 2016 she edited a Brazilian fiction double issue for the translation journal Metamorphoses. Unremembering Me, her translation of Ruffato’s novel De mim já nem se lembra, was published in 2018. She contributes works on Brazilian fiction and visual culture to scholarly journals.
