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Syndic Literary Journal

THE TREE IS IN THE WIND

                 For Germain Droogenbroodt

Written by José Eduardo Degrazia

Translated from the Portuguese by the poet

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Brazil

The tree is nothing without the wind,

I’m not even sure it exists

If the wind does not stir it with movement.

The tree only exists at the same time

Image, poem, photo, document,

besides its trunk, its roots, its breath,

sustaining itself in the sap,

In the wood that the fire burns, and the wind

Insists on breaks in a stormy night.

 

The tree becomes the wind,

or the eyes of those who invent it.

 

The tree happens when it moves

In the wind, or in thought,

 

Like the poem when it moves us.

 

José Eduardo Degrazia was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1951. He is an ophthalmologist. As a writer, he has published 19 books of short stories, poetry, and novels. Some of his books of poetry include: Permanent Lavra, 1975; Submerged City, 1979; The Guaraní Urn, 2004; Body of Brazil, 2011; and The Fleeting Flower, 2011;. As a translator of Spanish and Italian, he has published 14 books, among them, 07 by Pablo Neruda. He has received the following awards: Award of the Colonization and Immigration Biennium with Permanent Land, 1974; Contest Award from Status Magazine, 1978; Award of theater of the SNT with the play The House of the Impossibles, 1975; Finalist of the Nestlé prize of Literature, of 1996, with The Record Athlete; Finalist of the Azorean Prize with the Wild Lions of Tanganyika, 2003. 2006 The Best Translation South Prize with Pablo Neruda’s books Book of the Year Award of the Gaúcha Association of Writers – with the novel The Kingdom of Macambira – 2006 Award from the Mihai Eminescu International Academy of Romania for the Work in prose – 2012. International Prize of Poetry of Trieste of 2013. Prize of Poetry of the Union of Writers of Moldavia. 2015. Translation Award of the Association of Publishers of Romania – 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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