Carnaval Press presents Airspace and Neverland is Too Far Away at The Library
Carnaval Press is a small press specialised in poetry written in Portuguese. The proposal of this small press is to present Brazilian contemporary poetry, and also Portuguese poetry in translation to poetry readers in the UK.
Airspace (Espaço Aéreo) is a collection of poems written in airports by the Portuguese poet Ricardo Tiago Moura (Coimbra, 1978). Ricardo had four books of poetry published in Portugal: Um gato para dois (Hariemuj, 2013), ‘Epístolas a D.’ (não edições, 2013), 1 gato para 2 (não edições, 2015) and pequena indústria (Tea for One, 2016). Espaço Aéreo was originally published in Brazil in 2014 by Arqueria Editorial, was translated to Spanish by Alfredo Ruiz, and will be published in Lima by Amotape Libros. He lives in Køge, Dinamarca, and is also a collage artist.
Virna Teixeira’s Neverland is Too Far Away is a collection of poems originally published in Lisbon in 2014 (Não Edições), and translated by the author and by Edward Leek, with illustrations by Portuguese artist João Concha. Virna is a Brazilian poet and neurologist who moved to London in 2014. She had four books of poetry published in Brazil, wrote several poetry pamphlets, participated in anthologies of Brazilian poetry abroad, and has published four books of poetry in translation. Virna organised international poetry festivals in Brazil and Portugal, and has been developing an activity as a publisher with her former Arqueria Editorial in Brazil, and now with Carnaval Press in the UK since 2015.
When: 13th January, 19h30.
Address: 112 St Martins’ Lane, Covent Garden, London
MEU OLHO SE ABRE como ferida,
Abre-se como tua boca incerta,
Porto íntimo em tua fronte.
Abre-se em falhas e lágrimas,
Abre-se em fenda, chaga impossível,
Abre-se de tua cicatriz, como um livro,
Abre-se como tuas pernas
Que me apertam inconsútil
Até que cedo e me achego cego
Em derradeiro afã
À fonte que ao se dar
Me suga por completo,
Que me sutura vivo
Da noite até de manhã cedo.
***
MY EYE OPENS like a wound,
Opens like your hesitant mouth,
This familiar port that faces me.
Opens where it’s flawed and in tears,
Opens like a crack, an impossible gash,
Opens from your cicatrix, like a book,
Opens like your legs
That squeeze me unhealable
Until I approach blind at daybreak
One final effort
To the fount that on ceding
Saps me completely,
That sutures me alive
From night to the early morning.
Thiago Ponce de Moraes
(Translated by Rob Packer)
£5
It’s time to rearrange space. Pieces fill the place, but the components are small and repetitive. The directions exclude and protect. Retreats are places to explore the evolution of a private event, and to observe the ambiguous movement of the spectator.
Elements of illusion are transformed and removed from the setting, in order to adjust to a new, unconventional landscape. Moveable sculptures. To where will it take the freedom of this malleable material? Delicate symbolism. Language becomes image, and in this kinetoscope, I try to decode its signs.
*
É hora de reordenar o espaço. As peças preenchem o lugar, mas os componentes são pequenos e se repetem. As direções excluem e protegem. Os recuos são lugares para explorar a evolução de um evento privado, e observar o movimento ambíguo do espectador.
Elementos de ilusão se transformam e são removidos do cenário, para adaptar-se a uma paisagem nova, não tradicional. Esculturas movéis. Aonde levará a liberdade deste material moldável? Simbolismo delicado. A linguagem torna-se imagem, e neste cinetoscópio, tento decifrar seus signos.
Virna Teixeira
Maternal Instincts is out this spring. It is the first bilingual collection of Brazilian poet Virna Teixeira, who lives in London. This prose poetry pamphlet explores a new arrangement of internal space and creativity after the author’s experience of motherhood.
£5
nem todos os ventos da ilha testemunham o que territorialmente te move e de ti faz-se habitante. quando vês correm pelo corpo nuvens a galope. cinzas são as escolhas, com chuvas de pedras e águas de passado, domínios ávidos por mais céus e batalhas campais onde perde e ganha o coração errante.
contendas de solidão os ventos da grã-bretanha. e na solitude dos castelos de anseios, vencem os duelos. já possuis então muralhas, estratégias; és fortaleza e corte. reino de bordas, não de ilhéu, mas de tripulante. a terra marcha por dentro, porém és o mesmo mar que te protege e consome.
not all the winds of the island testify what territorially moves you and makes you an inhabitant. when you see clouds run through your body at a gallop. the choices are grey, with rains of stones and past waters, avid dominions for more skies and pitched battles where you win and lose the erring heart.
contentions of loneliness, great britain’s winds. and in the solitude of the craved castles, duels won. then you already possess walls, strategies; you are fortress and court. kingdom of borders, not of an islander, but of a crew earth marches inside, however you are the same sea that protects and devours yourself.
Rosane Carneiro
(Tradução: Virna Teixeira)
The first poetry pamphlet of Carnaval Press, Drone, will be launched 12th December, 7pm, at A Portuguese Love Affair (142 Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG, email: info@aportugueseloveaffair.co.uk)
£5
