from João Cabral de Melo Neto's O Mar eo Canavial
What the sea does learn from the cane field:
the horizontal eloquence of its verse;
the georgics of cordel poetry, uninterrupted,
narrated in a voice that parallels silence.
What the sea doesn't learn from the canefield:
the vehement passion of high tide;
the two-handed-pestle of waves on sand,
grinding and crushing, pounded by what pounds.
What the canefield does learn from the sea:
The advancing in an unreliable line of a wave;
the liquid's meticulous overflow
flooding cove after cove expanding itself
What the canefield doesn't learn from the sea:
the cane's excessive fear of flowing;
the modesty of the latifundium of the sea,
which lacking ballest, sheds itself.
cordel: from literatura de cordel, literally translated as literature on a string. It is poetry printed in chapbooks and sold by street vendors--often displayed on a string just like lotto tickets over the vending stall. It is very popular in Brazil"s northeast.