Cat
What are you doing there, cat?
What ambiguity have you come to look at?
Master of yourself, cautious, you wend
your way, testy and always in disguise,
hiding what, in fact, you haven’t got and I must lend
to you, oh cat, nightmare slow and quick,
soft, puffy fur, ice cold eyes.
Of what obscure force are you the dwelling place?
What crime have you witnessed and in what spot?
What god gave you your sudden claw
that signs in red this hand, that face?
Oh cat, accomplice to a fearful law
still without words, without a plot,
who are we, your owners or your slaves?
by Alexandre O’Neill
from Poesias Completas
publisher: Assírio & Alvim, Lisbon, 2000
translation: 1998, Alexis Levitin
Original Portuguese after the jump
Que ambiguidade vens explorar?
Senhor de ti, avanças, cauto,
meio agastado e sempre a disfarçar
o que afinal não tens e eu te empresto,
ó gato, pesadelo lento e lesto,
fofo no pêlo, frio no olhar!
De que obscura força és a morada?
Qual o crime de que foste testemunha?
Que deus te deu a repentina unha
que rubrica esta mão, aquela cara?
Gato, cúmplice de um medo
ainda sem palavras, sem enredos,
quem somos nós, teus donos ou teus servos?
by Alexandre O’Neill