Hilda Hilst / Ten Calls a Friend VII / This mournfulness, this restlessness

Ten Calls a Friend

by Hilda Hilst

Translated by Beatriz Bastos

VII

This mournfulness, this restlessness
the inner convulsions, an endless island,
solitude within, body dying —
all this I owe to you. And they were vast,
these plans — ships
great walls of ivory, fine words,
promises, promises. And it would be December,
a jade horse above the water,
doubly transparent, a line in mid-air —
all this undone by the trapdoor of time
in perfect silence. Some glass mornings
wind, the hollowed soul, a sun I can't see —
this too I owe to you.

Hilda Hilst

Is a poet from Brazil who writes in Portuguese.

Hilda Hilst

The Brazilian poet, Hilda Hist, was born in Jaú in 1930. She was writing for almost 50 years, during which time she was awarded collected many of the most prestigious Brazilian literary prizes. In 1962 she won the Prêmio PEN Clube of São Paulo, for Sete Cantos do Poeta para o Anjo (Massao Ohno Editor, 1962). In 1969, the play O Verdugo took the Prêmio Anchieta, one of the most important in the country at the time. The Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte (APCA Prize) deemed Ficções (Edições Quíron, 1977) the best book of the year. In 1981, Hilda Hilst got the Grande Prêmio da Crítica para o Conjunto da Obra, by the same Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte. In 1984, the Câmara Brasileira do Livro awarded the Jabuti Prize for Cantares de Perda e Predileção; the following year the same book claimed the Prêmio Cassiano Ricardo (Clube de Poesia de São Paulo). Rútilo Nada, published in 1993, took the Jabuti Prize for best short story, and finally, on August 9, 2002, she was awarded at the 47th edition of the Prêmio Moinho Santista in the poetry category. She died in February 2004.