August 8, 2004

• The Bird

  No one 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 light-
  house,
  and the keeper drove it thence, lest it mislead the
  ships.
  No one offered 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 wheat-
  fields, 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 it not…..
  (Jorge de Lima, Brazilian – born 1983)

  • 11:23 pm
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