"Continuidade" e "Com Palavras "- Poemas de Egito Gonçalves

 

William J. Glackens (American realist painter, 1870-1938), The Night After San Juan, 1898. 

 Watercolor, pen, and black ink on paper, Collection – NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

 

[The paintings of William Glackens not only reflect his talent and sensibilities, but also reflect the social, political and artistic changes taking place in America in the beginning of the twentieth century.

Like his older brother, Louis, William Glackens began his career as an illustrator. McClure's Magazine sent him to Cuba, to cover the Spanish-American War. His drawings, like The Night After San Juan, clearly illustrate the devastation and sadness of war. (Daqui) ]

Continuidade

Na hora agreste da tempestade
Quando o vendaval chegou rufiando tambores
E os pássaros desertaram, voando para novos céus,
Os homens ficaram em fila propicia silenciosos,
Encostados à muralha e ignorantes disso.
Aviões substituíram os pássaros insubstituíveis. . .
Bocas de metralhadora assobiaram balas. . .
Os homens gritaram,
Torceram-se em curvas de dor e de morte,
Amontoando-se no solo sujo
Numa agonia que nenhuma flor adoçou.

Muitos escaparam porém.
Fatigado de apunhalar a insensível argila
O vendaval quebrou e sumiu.
Os pássaros voltaram, as flores abriram. . .
Os homens curaram as suas feridas,
Espreguiçaram-se ao sol da primavera
E encostaram-se de novo na muralha
Em fila propícia. 


Egito Gonçalves 

(Poeta, editor e tradutor português, 1920 - 2001).

 

 

William J. Glackens, Italo-American Celebration, Washington Square, 1912,

 Boston Museum of Fine Arts

 

[William Glackens established himself in New York City by 1896, and in 1910 he began a series of paintings depicting the Washington Square area. By then the park represented the demarcation between the old and new communities of New York. Some of the most prominent New York families who traced their ancestry to the seventeenth-century Dutch settlers still resided in the brick townhouses along the north side of the square, which are visible through the trees on the right. However, the less fashionable neighborhoods around Washington Square attracted newly arrived immigrants who worked in the factories and sweatshops nearby and also artists (including Glackens) who were drawn to the bohemian lifestyle of the district.

When Glackens painted this scene of the parade celebrating Christopher Columbus's discovery of America, Italian-Americans formed the largest immigrant population in Manhattan. Columbus became a role model for many ethnic and religious groups, and Glackens suggests the international flavor of the celebration by painting a variety of flags visible through Washington Square Arch. The juxtaposition of the Old World and the New is further enhanced by the prominence of the Italian and American flags standing side by side in the lower foreground. The American dream of rapid transformation from immigrant to respected community leader is suggested by the modestly dressed onlookers who observe both the decorated men in top hats seated under the arch and those successful citizens spirited away above the throng in a carriage. Rendered with lively brushwork to enhance the festive and breezy atmosphere, the composition presents a distinctly American spectacle of Italian-American revelers and their pride of place in the urban scene.(Daqui)]

 

 

William J. Glackens, Parade, Washington Square, 1912

 

Com Palavras 

 

 

Com palavras me ergo em cada dia!
Com palavras lavo, nas manhãs, o rosto
e saio para a rua.
Com palavras - inaudíveis - grito
para rasgar os risos que nos cercam.
Ah!, de palavras estamos todos cheios.
Possuímos arquivos, sabemo-las de cor
em quatro ou cinco línguas.
Tomamo-las à noite em comprimidos
para dormir o cansaço.
As palavras embrulham-se na língua.
As mais puras transformam-se, violáceas,
roxas de silêncio. De que servem
asfixiadas em saliva, prisioneiras?
Possuímos, das palavras, as mais belas;
as que seivam o amor, a liberdade...
Engulo-as perguntando-me se um dia
as poderei navegar; se alguma vez
dilatarei o pulmão que as encerra.
Atravessa-nos um rio de palavras:
Com elas eu me deito, me levanto,
e faltam-me palavras para contar... 

 

 Egito Gonçalves,

in 'Antologia Poética'

 

 

William J. Glackens, Washington Square Park, 1908

 

 

 “Art, like humanity, every time has an ancestry.”

(William Glackens)