Biography.
Elisangela Martins, known as Eli Macuxi, is a Brazilian poet and teacher. She teaches History and Art Criticism in the Visual Arts Course at the Federal University of Roraima in North Brazil. Her first poetry collection, Amor Para Quem Odeia (2013), portrays love in its various forms of human experience. She is a frequent participant of Coletivo Caimbé, an association founded in 2009, with headquarters in Boa Vista, capital of Roraima, to promote citizenship through literature and the visual arts.
Sadness has no end...
I wish I had the courageand power
to overcome alone
my simple problem
of those who cannot read.
I wish I had the courage
and even more power
to shelter children devastated
by bombs
and by fathers and mothers disappeared
in police barricades.
I wish I had a word of comfort
but education, love, care, courage,
hope, faith, tenderness, time
genuine interest, kindness, compassion
are just words
when the whole world all around says no
and sinks into darkness
in a miserable chaos.
In silence, I disappear
for a deep and guilty sleep
under the bedsheet freshly washed
and listening to the rain fall from the sky.
Translated by Rosaliene Bacchus
Believe In Your Dreams
When I was a little girlI kept, in silence, a dream
I didn't tell my parents,
I didn't tell it to my brothers
I took it in my hands
And I kept it well guarded.
when I decided to eat
The cream had moldy.
Translated by Jéssica Iancoski
