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JORGE DE LIMA

JORGE DE LIMA
(1893-1953)
 

A simple man, described as kindness itself bay his friends, the many-faceted mulatto form the Northeast, Jorge de Lima, was the most versatile of all modern Brazilian poets. Born in União dos Palmares, Alagoas, on April 23, 1893, Lima became, after a brief period of fame as a neoParnasian, the chief representative of lyric poetry within the Northeast Regionalist Movement. A folkloric genius who could recite a vast store of tales, he nourished his natural love for all things animate and inanimate, and develop I time a super-natural charity base upon a Christian mysticism that permitted him to see the universe in the eternal sacrifice of Calvary. Celebrating the Negro as no other Brazilian poet has been able to do and creating  fantastic visions that troubled his imagination and often kept him form sleep, Jorge de Lima also wrote neo-naturalistic novels and surrealistic prose.  But so great was his poetic achievement that Brazilian criticism still finds it difficult to decide which part if his work deserves the greatest admiration: his Christian or his regional poetry. Limas´s later volumes are his most impressive: Tempo e Eternidade (in collaboration with Murilo Mendes, 1935); A Túnica Inconsútil (1938); Poemas Negros (1946); Livro de Sonetos (1949); Invenção de Orfeu (1952).

Translated , with the help of Yolanda Leite,
by JOHN NIST
MODERN BRAZILIAN POETRY, AN ANTHOLOGY
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962

 

THE WORDS WILL RESSURRECT

The words have grown old inside men
And separated into islands,
The words have mummified in the mouths of legislators;
The words have rotted in the promises of tryants;
The words mean nothing in the speeches of politicians.
And Word of God is one despite the sacrilege
         of the men of Babel,
Despite the sacrilege of the men of today.
And can it be that the immortal word will sicken?
And can it be that the great Semitic word will disappear?
And can it be that the poet was not designated to give
         the word new life?
To pick it from the surface of the waters and offer it
         again to the men of the continent?
And was he not appointed to restore its essence,
         and to reconstitute its magic content?
Does the poet not see the communion of languages,
When men will reconquer the attributes lost with The Fall,
And when the nations founded after Babel will be destroyed?
When all the confusion is undone,
Will the poet not speak form wherever he is,
To all men on earth, in one single language —
         the language of the Spirit?
But should  you live sunk in time and in space,
You sill not understand me, brother!


DISTRIBUTION OF POETRY

I took wild honey from the plants,
I took salt from the waters, I took light from the sky.
Listen, my brothers, I took poetry from everything
To offer it to the Lord.
I did not dig gold from the earth
Or leech blood from my brothers.
Inn-keepers: let me alone.
Peddlers and bankers:
I can fabricate distances
To keep you away from me.
Life is a failure,
I believe in the magic of God.
The roosters are not crowing,
The day has not dawned.
I saw the ships go and return.
I saw misery go and return.

I saw the fat man in the fire.
I saw zig-zags in the darkness.
Captain, where is the Congo?
Where is the Isle of Saint Brandon?
Captain, what a black night!
Mistiffs howl in the darkness.
O Untouchables, which is the country,
Which is the country that you desire?
I took wild honey from the plants.
I took salt from the waters, I took light from the sky.
Sit down, my brothers.


PAPA JOHN

Papa John withered like a rootless stick.—
         Papa John is going to die.
Para John rowed the boats. —
         He dug the earth.
         He made spring from the ground
         The emerald of leaves — coffee, cane, cotton.
Papa John dug up more emeralds
         Than pioneer Paes Leme.

Papa John´s daughter had the breasts of a cow
         For his mother´s children to suck:
         When her breasts dried up, Papa John´s daughter
         Also withered while fastened to
         a PRESSING IRON.
         Papa John´s skin stuck to the tips
         Of whips.
         Papa John´s strength stayed on the handle
         Of hoe and of scythe.
         Papa John´s wife the white
         Man stole and made her a nurse.
         Papa John´s blood dissolved in the good blood
         Like a lump of crude sugar
         In a pan of milk.—
         Papa John was a horse for his master´s children to mount.
         Papa John could tell such beautiful stories
         That you felt like crying.
         Papa John is going to die.
         The night outside is as black as Papa John´skin.
         Not one star in the sky.
         It looks like the witchcraft of Papa John.

 

THE RIVER AND THE SERPENT

The river and the serpent are mysterious, my son.
On the top of the mountain
Were two circles of the Eternal.
One circle was the serpent.
The other circle was the river:
Both precipitated,
Both came searching for man,
One to purify him,
The other to poison him..
Down there they both found
The simple man.
One offered him the Fish to feed him,
The other offered him the fruit to intoxicate him.
The river and the serpent are mysterious, my son.
From the clowds they precipitated,
Both are crawling on the earth
Like the two ways of man,
For him to choose as his guide.
The river and the serpent are mysterious my son:
They come from the beginning of things,
They run towards the end of everything
And sometimes in the water of  the river
You will find the black serpent.
Things were simple, my son,
But they became confused:
The river that washes you
Can also drown you,
For under the appearance of the river
Slides the serpent.
The river and the serpent are mysterious, my son:
In the brightening they were two circles,
From there they came uncoiled.


THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE CREATURE


It seems, Lord, that I have unfolded myself,
That I have multiplied myself.
That the rain from heaven falls into my hands,
That the noise of the world moans in my ears,
That someone husks wheat, weeping, in my naked trunk,
That cities burn within my eyesockets.
It seems, Lord, that the nights darken in my manifold being.
That I speak unwitting for all my brothers,
That I walk more and more in search of You.
It seems, Lord, that You have lengthened my arms


To reach for rare and gleaning vaults,
That you have extended my feet resting in Limbo,
That the tired birds perch on my shoulder
Without knowing that the scarecrow  is Your Image.
It seems that in my veins
Flow the nocturnal rivers
Where boatmen row against rising tides.
It seems that in my shadow
The sun rises and sets,
And my shadow and my being
Are worth one minute in You.

 

THE SLEEP BEFORE

Stop everything that keeps me form sleep:
Those cranes in the night,
that violent wind,
The last thought of those suicides.
Stop everything that keeps me from sleep:
Those infernal ghosts that open my eyelids,
This acceleration of my hear,
This echoing of things deserted and dumb.
Stop everything that keeps me from returning
         to the sunlit sleep
That God gave me
Before He created me.


I ANNOUNCE CONSOLATION TO YOU

1 – The poor who possess only their poverty
      And nothing else;
      The dying who count on their end only
      And nothing else;
      The weak who possess only their weakness
      and nothing else;
      Can walk on the waters of the sea.

2 – Those who possess herds of machines,
      Those who are heavy with crimes and gold,
       Men of hatred or of pride,
       Those will sink.

3 – We will call the man whom war has almost devoured
      And to whom it has left only his knees on the ground.
      That man will run faster than light.

4 – We will call the man who blew out the life that
        God gave him,
      And whom the evil of the earth has spoiled with
         its vices,
      That man, God will give him new life.

5 – We will call the man who saw the first minute. And
         he died.

6 – The man who wanted to smile and was born without lips.

7 – These will be comforted.
      These will remain at the right hand.

RAG DOLL

Rag doll with eyes of bead,
a dress of chintz,
hair of ribbons,
stuffed with wool.

Day and night, her opened eyes,
looking at the toy soldiers that can march,
at the jacks-in-the-box that can jump.
Rag doll that falls down:
she does not break, she costs a penny.
Rag doll of the unhappy girls
who lead the cripples, who pick up
cigarette butts, who beg at the corners, poor things!
Rag doll with an impassive face like those girls.
Dirty little doll, stuffed with wool. —
The eyes of bead have fallen off. Blind
she rolls in the gutter. The garbage man takes her away,
covered with mud, naked,
Jus as our Lord had intended.

 

CHRISTMAS POEM

O, my Jesus, as soon as you grow
A little bit older,
Come take a walk with me,
For too am fond of children.

We shall go see the tame bests
In the zoological garden.
And on any holiday
We shall then go, for example,
To see Christ King of Corcovado.

And those who pass
Upon seeing the boy
Will certainly say: There goes the son
Of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception!

— That little boy who hoes there
(Several men will then add)
Knows more things than all of us.

— Good morning, Jesus — a voice will say.

And other voices will whisper:
— It is the handsome boy who is in the book
Of my First Communion.

— How strong he looks! — Nothing changed!
— How gentlemen will say a little later on).

But other people of different appearance
Will surely say on seeing You:
— It is the son of the carpenter!
And on seeing the custom of a working man
To take a walk on a Sunday,
They will invite us to go together
To visit our fellow workers,

And when we come back
Home, at night,
And the sinners turn to their vices,
They will undoubtedly ask me.

And I will invent subtle excuses
For You to let me go alone.
Child Jesus, have mercy on us,
Hold my hand very tight.



GOODBYE TO POETRY

My Lord Jesus, this century is rotten.
Where shall I seek for poetry?
I must take off all the cloaks,
The beautiful cloaks that the world has given me.
I must take off the cloak of poetry.
I must take off the purest cloak.
My Lord Jesus, this century is sick,
This century is rich, this century is fat.
I must take off what is beautiful, I must take off poetry,
I must take off the purest cloak
Which time has given me, which life gives me.
I want Your road to be light.
Even what is beautiful is heavy on my shoulders,
Even poetry above the world,
Above time, above life,
Mashes me on the earth, binds me to things.
I want a voice stronger than the poem,
Stronger than hell, stronger then death:
I want a power closer to You.
I want to strip myself of my voice and my eyes,
Of the other senses, of the other prisons;
I cannot, Lord: the age is sick.
The cries of the earth, of suffering men
Bind me, pull me — give me Your hand.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

THE ENORMOUS HAND

 

         Translated by June Jordan

 

Inside the nighttime of the storm,

the mystery caravel goes there.

Time moves, and waters crest,

the wind weeps ugly loud.

The mystery caravel goes there.

Above this ship

what hand is that more huge

even than the sea?

Hand of the pilot?

Whose hand?

The caravel plunges,

the sea stands dark,

time moves.

Above this ship

the large hand

is bleeding.

The caravel goes there.

The sea spills,

land vanishes,

stars fall.

The caravel continues and

above this ship

the eternal hand

is there.

 

 

From  AN ANTHOLOGY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRAZILIAN POETRY, edited with introduction by Elizabeth Bishop... Middletown, Cunn.: Westeyan Univesity Press, 1972

 

AN INTRODUCTION TO MODERN BRAZILIAN POETRY. Verse translations by Leonard S. Downes.  [São Paulo]: Clube de Poesia do Brasil, 1954.  84 p.  14x20 cm.  “ Leonard S. Downes “ Ex. Biblioteca Nacional de Brasília

 

Imagem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W_39dFystc


THAT NIGGER FULÔ

 

Now it happened that there carne

(this was very long ago.)

to my grandfather's farm

a nigger girl whose name

was Fulo, that nigger Fulô.

 

That nigger Fulô!

That nigger Fulô!

 

O Fulô! O Fulô!

('Twas the Mistress ,waá calling)

— Will you go and make my bed,

will you help me to undress

come here at once, Fulô!

 

          That nigger Fulô!

 

That nigger girl Fulô!

She was taken into service

to look after her young Mistress

and to iron the Master's clothes.

 

          That nigger Fulô!

          That nigger Fulô!

 

O Fulô! O Fulô!

('Twas the Mistress was calling)

for I´m feeling much too hot

come and scratch my back for me

run your fingers through my hair

come and swing me in my hammock

come and tell me a nice story

to send me off to sleep, O Fulô!

 

          That nigger Fulo!

 

"Once upon a time was a fair princess

who lived in a lordly castle

and she wore a beautiful sillken dress

made of all the fish in the sea.

Into the leg of a duckling she Went

out of the leg of a chicken she came

by my Lord the King's self I was sent

to tell you five more of the same".

 

          That nigger Fulô!

          That nigger Fulô!

 

O Fulô? O Fulô?

Go at once, Fulo, and see

that the children are in bed!

"By my mother I was curled

by my stepmother interred

by the figs of the twisted fig-tree

nibbled by the Sabiá bird".

 

          That nigger Fulô!

          That nigger Fulô!

 

O Fulô? O Fulô?

('Twas the Mistress was calling

—for the nigger girl Fulô)

Where's my perfume, I would know,

that your Master gave to me?

 

— O 'twas you wfho were the thief!

O 'twas you who were the thief!

 

The Master went to see

that nigger girl whipped.

The nigger girl stripped.

The Master said: Fulô!

(And his look was as black

as the nigger girl Fulô)

 

          That nigger Fulô!

          That nigger Fulô!

 

O Fulô? O Fulô?

Where's my kerchief of fine lace,

where's my sash, where's my brooch,

where's my necklace, I would know,

that your Master gave to me?

O 'twas you who were the thief.

O 'twas you who were the thief»

 

          That nigger Fulô!

          That nigger Fulô!


The Master went alone

to whip that nigger girl Fulô.

The nigger girl took o f f her skirt,,

took off her smock as well,

and out of it there jumped,

bare-naked, that nigger Fulô.

 

          That nigger Fulô!

          That nigger Fulô!

 

O Fulô? O Fulô?

 

Where's your Master, I would know,

that the Good Lord gave to me?

Was it you who were the thief,

was it you, O nigger Fulô?

 

          That nigger Fulô!

 

 

ANTOLOGÍA DE LA POESÍA AMERICANA CONTEMPORÁNEA.  /  ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY LATIN-AMERICAN POETRYEdited by Duddley Fitts.
Norfolk Conn.: A New Direrctions Book, 1942.  667 p.   Inclui os poetas brasileiros: Jorge de Lima, Ismael Nery, Murilo Mendes,  Ronald de Carvalho, Menotti del Picchia, Manuel Bandeira, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Ex. bibl. Antonio Miranda

 

 

DADDY JOHN

 

DADDY John withered like a tree without roots.

Daddy John is dying.

Daddy John pulled at the oars,

tilled the earth,

drew from the soil a green wealth of leaves:
coffee, sugar cane, cotton.

Daddy John dug more emeralds than Paes Leme.
Daddy John's daughter, with her cow's dugs,
suckled the massa's children.
When her breast was dry, Daddy Johns daughter
withered also, still clutching her flatiron.
The skin of Daddy John stayed on the whip-lash.
The strength of Daddy John stayed on the handle of the
         hoe     and sickle.

 

The white man stole Daddy John's wife
to be wet-nurse to his children.

The blood of Daddy John melted in the blood of the quality

like a lump of brown sugar

in a jar of milk.

Daddy John was a horse

for the massa's children to ride.

Daddy John knew stories so pretty

they made you want to cry.

 

Daddy John is dying.

 

The night out yonder is like the skin of Daddy John.
Not a star in the sky.

So that it seems the very magic of Daddy John.

 

 

THE BIRD

 

No MAN knew whence the strange bird came.
Possibly the last hurricane had swept it
from an unknown island or from some gulf;
or it was born of gigantic seaweeds,
or it fell from another atmosphere,
from another world, another mystery.
Old sailors had never seen it among the ice,
nor had any wanderer ever met up with it:
man-shaped it was, like an angel, and silent
like any poet.

At first it hovered over the great dome of the temple;
but the high priest drove it away, as one would drive a
         malign spirit.

In the same night it lit on the summit of the lighthouse,
and the keeper drove it thence, lest it mislead the ships.
No one off ered it a morsel of bread
or the kindly shelter of a resting place.
Someone said: This is one of those evil birds that
         devour the flocks.

And another: This bird is no doubt a hungry demon.
When with outstretched wings it sheltered weary children,
the mothers themselves stoned the mysterious, persecuted
         and unresting bird.
It had fled, perhaps, from a silent peak among

the clouds, or had lost its mate by an arrow.
The bird was man-shaped, like an angel,
and solitary as any poet.

And it seemed to desire the companionship of men

who drove it from them as one would drive a malign spirit.

When the accustomed flood overwhelmed the wheatfields,

someone said:
The bird brought the flood.

When the yearly drought wasted the herds, someone said:
The bird ate the lambs.
And since all the fountains denied it water,
the bird fell upon the earth like a Samson deprived of life.
Then a humble fisherman gathered up the soft body and said:
I found the body of a great gentle bird.
And someone remembered that the bird used to carry eggs
          to the hermits.

A beggar told how the bird often sheltered him from the cold.

And a naked man said: The bird gave me feathers for a coat.
And the leader of the people: It was the king of the birds and

we knew him not. And the leader's youngest son, who was
         lonely and gentle, said:

Give me the quills that I may write my life,
so like that bird's, wherein I see myself
more than I see myself in thee, my father.

                                                                  D. P.

 

 

POEM OF ANY VIRGIN

 

THE generations of the virgin are tattooed on her
         unblemished belly,

for the virgin represents all that is to be.
Rainbows are tattooed on her hands, Towers of Babel
         on her arms.

The virgin's body is tattooed by God because she is the
         source of the world to be.
There is not a particle of her body without designs and
         future plans.

Not a pore is without tattooing: that is why the virgin
         is so beautiful.

Come, let us read the virgin, let us learn the future: note
         that the tattooings are not
mere adornments, O men of little sight. See, there are

         tattooings within

tattooings, there are generations issuing from generations.

Who tattooed the virgin ? It was God on the day of the Fall.

See the serpent tattooed on her. See the angel tattooed on her.

         See the Cross tattooed on her. Look, gentlemen, there is
         nothing to pay. This is the supreme spectacle, gentlemen.
         I will explain the mysteries, the symbolical letters even to
         omega. Come and see the marvelous work etched on the
         virgin's body: the history of the world, the inhabited
         stratosphere, the magician Tim-Ka-Lu taking a journey in
          the moon. For the virgin is marvelous and contains
         everything. Come gentlemen, there is nothing to pay.
         The image of innocence, of lust, of crime, of goodness, all
         these incredible pictures are on the virgin's back,,on her
         neck, on her face. Disorders are about to issue from the
          tattooings. The moment is extremely grave, gentlemen.
         Great revolts are in the making. There is a sea tattooed on
         the virgin, with the seven days of creation, with the flood,
         with death. Come, gentlemen, there is no admission to pay.

 

Gentlemen, today there is a spectacle on earth.

Come and see the virgin, the tattooed virgin, the virgin
         tattooed by God.
She is naked and at the same time clothed with tattooings.
Gentlemen, the virgin is going to be on show for ages.
There are prognostications in the tattooings, there are poems,

         there are mysteries.
That is why the show is pretty. That is why the virgin attracts

         you.

Come, gentlemen!

                                                                  D. p.

 

 

THE BIG MYSTICAL CIRCUS

 

FREDERICK Knieps, Physician of the Bed-Chamber to the

         Empress Theresa,
resolved that his son also should be a doctor,

but the youth, having established relations with Agnes, the
         tightrope artist,
married her and founded the circus dynasty of Knieps
with which the newspapers are so much concerned.
Charlotte, the daughter of Frederick, married the clown,
whence sprang Marie and Otto.
Otto married Lily Braun, the celebrated contortionist,
who had a saint's image tattooed on her belly.
The daughter of Lily Braun—she of the tattooed belly—
wanted to enter a convent,
but Otto Frederick Knieps would not consent,
and Margaret continued the circus dynasty
with which the newspapers are so much concerned.
Then Margaret had her body tattooed,
suffering greatly for the love of God,
and caused to be engraved on her rosy skin
the Fourteen Stations of our Lord's Passion.
No tiger ever attacked her;

the lion Nero, who had already eaten two ventriloquists,
when she entered his cage nude,
wept like a new-born babe.

Her husband, the trapeze artist Ludwig, never could
         love her thereafter,
because the sacred engravings obliterated
both her skin and his desire.
Then the pugilist Rudolph, who was an atheist
and a cruel man, attacked Margaret and violated her.
After this, he was converted and died.

Margaret bore two daughters who are the wonder of
         Knieps' Great Circus.
But the greatest of miracles is their virginity,
against which bankers and gentlemen with monocles
         beat in vain;

their levitations, which the audience thinks a fraud;

their chastity, in which nobody believes;

their magic, which the simple-minded say is the devil's;

yet the children believe in them, are their faithful followers,
         their friends, their devoted worshipers.
Marie and Helene perform nude;
they dance on the wire and so dislocate their limbs
that their arms and legs no longer appear their own.
The spectators shout encore to thighs, encore to breasts,

         encore to armpits.
Marie and Helene give themselves wholly,
and are shared by cynical men;
but their souls, which nobody sees, they keep pure.
And when they display their limbs in the sight of men,
they display their souls in the sight of God.
With the true history of Knieps' Great Circus
the newspapers are very little concerned.

                                                                  D. P.

 

 

PARACLETE

 

BURN me, Tongue of Fire!
Then blow upon the kindled fagots
and scatter them through the earth
that Thy flames may multiply!
Transform me in Thy burning coals
that I, too, may burn as Thou burnest,
that I, too, may brand with fire as Thou dost!
Destroy me with Thy tempest,
Spirit violent and most gentle,
and restore me when Thou wilt;
|blind me that the miracles of God may come to pass,
and grant me light that the rays of Thy glory may spread!
Spirit, Thou who art the mouth of all wisdom,
kindle me, that my nameless brothers in far off
         unfamiliar lands

may know my speech through all the ears Thou
hast created!

That I may surpass my limitations,
that I may grow in all dimensions,

that I may be the transcendent word, the prophecy,
          the revelation and the reality!

Consume me, renew me, bring me forth again through
         Thy creative will

in the face of death and in the face of nothingness!
Increase my awareness,
stay within my sight,
quicken in me what is slow,
make me manifold as Thou art,

cover my whole body with lidded eyes to spy out all
         latitudes and longitudes,
all hopes and annunciations, all births, all conceptions,
all generations, world without end!
I shall rise again from all wombs,
I shall fly towards eternity above the waters and above
          the lands!

Set me free, Paraclete! Loosen my bonds,
blow the earth from my tomb!

Fill me with Thy truth and consecrate me Thy apostle
          for today!

I love as a poet the form in which Thou didst reveal Thyself

to the gathering at the Last Supper!

And I feel Thy presence,

Thy nearness, Thy unction upon my soul!

Endow me with Thy fruitfulness surpassing nature,

Thy courage and Thy light!

Anoint me Thy priest,

make me Thy soldier, Thy wine, Thy bread,

Thy seed, Thy horizon!

Paraclete, finger of the right hand of the Father,

lift my drooping eyelids and blow Thy breath and
         Thy being upon them!
Paraclete, I adore Thee with my five senses,
with my imagination,

with my memory and with all other faculties poetic,
         prophetic and creative,

faculties transcending my gross substance and my
         translucent spirit!

I am the olive branch which Thou bringest from the recurrent

         floods of mankind
whose oil shall anoint alike my equals and those who are not

         my equals!

Paraclete, Thou who alone descendest like a bird upon
         me in my dark night,
sharpen my eyes that I may see more clearly,
that I may penetrate the unity which Thou art,
the liberty which Thou art,
the multiplicity which Thou art,

that I may rise from my littleness and humble myself
         before Thee!

                                                                           D. P.

 

 

CHRISTIAN'S POEM

 

BECAUSE the blood of Christ
spurted upon my eyes
I see all things

and so profoundly that none may know.

Centuries past and yet to come

dismay me not, for I am born and shall be born again,

for I am one with all creatures,

with all beings, and with all things;

all of them I dissolve and take in again with my senses

and embrace with a mind

transfigured in Christ.

My reach is throughout space.

I am everywhere: I am in God and in matter;

I am older than time and yet was born yesterday,

I drip with primeval slime,

and at the same time I blow the last trumpet.

I understand all tongues, all acts, all signs,

I contain within me the blood of races utterly opposed.

I can dry, with a mere nod,

the weeping of all distant brothers.

I can spread over all heads one all-embracing and starry sky.

I invite all beggars to dine with me,

and I walk on the waters like the prophets of the Bible.

For me there is no darkness.

I imbue the blind with light,

I can mutilate myself and grow my limbs anew  

         like the starfish,

because I believe in the resurrection of the flesh and
         because I believe in Christ,
and in the life eternal, amen.

And possessing eternal life I am able to transgress
         the laws of nature:
my passing is looked for in the streets,
I come and go like a prophecy,
I come unbidden like knowledge and Faith.
I  am ready like the Master's answer,
I am seamless like His garment,
I am manifold like His Church,

my arms are spread like the arms of His Cross,
         broken yet always restored,
at all hours, in all directions, to the four points of the compass;
and I bear His Cross on my shoulders
through all the darkness of the world, because the light

eternal is in my eyes.
And having in my eyes the light eternal, I am the greatest
         worker of wonders:
I rise again from the mouth of tigers, I am clown, I am alpha

and omega, I am fish, lamb, eater of locusts, I am

ridiculous, I am tempted and pardoned, I am
cast down upon earth and uplifted in glory, I am clothed in

         mantles of purple and fine linen, I am ignorant like

         Saint Christopher and learned like Saint Thomas.

         And I am mad, mad, wholly mad forever, world without

         end, mad with God, Amen.

And being the madness of God I am the reason in all things,

         the order and the measure,

I am judgment, creation, obedience,

I am repentance, I am humility,

I am the author of the passion and death of Jesus,

I am the sin of all men,

I am nothing.

Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam!

                                                                           D. P.

 

Página publicada em janeiro de 2009; página ampliada e republicada em agosto de 2015. Ampliada em setembroa de 2016



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