Wednesday 20 July 2016

Manoel de Barros: Ants



I didn’t need to read Saint Paul, Saint Augustine,
Saint Jerome, or Thomas of Aquinas,
Not even Saint Francis of Assisi 
To arrive at God.
Ants showed him to me.

(I have a doctorate in ants).



Tr. Idra Novey in Birds for a Demolition (2010). Barros, who died in 2014 close to his centenary, lived as a farmer in Mato Grosso and wrote gnomic poems that are both mysterious and approachable - he should be better known to the English-speaking world.

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