Biography.
Astrid Cabral Félix de Sousa (born 1936) is a novelist, critic, environmentalist, and diplomat, and one of the most eminent contemporary poets in Brazil. She is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Through Water (2003) and Anteroom (2007), along with many collections of essays and short fiction. Born in Manaus, Amazonas, she has lived and worked as a diplomat in Beirut and Chicago and has taught in both the United States and Brazil. A mother of five, she currently resides in Rio de Janeiro, where she continues her work as a figure in the Amazonian cultural identity and recovery movement.
Portrait
Have you ever seen a birdwith roots?
Have you ever seen a tree
with wings?
Have you ever seen a fish
with a voice?
Look at me.
Wind
Only the self-sufficientor anesthetized madmen
twist their head away from the wind
rejecting
the kiss of a breeze
on the face
and on the body
its invisible embrace.
Translated by Alexis Levitin
