Fair of the Fruit: Feira da Fruta

Our colleague Vitor Moura sent us this poem, by Banda Capote, which tells about a visit to one of the many fruit fairs that one can found around Brazil

I entered the fair of the fruit
To see what the fair of fruit had
It had banana, strawberry and orange
It just lacked the jack fruit of my honey

Fair of fruit is the most expensive fair
Where it only gives villains
There are the family-size fair
There are even the fair of the melon

Fair of fruit, ei Fair of fruit, ah x2

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Poison Girl - Menina Veneno

Poison Girl (Menina Veneno), by the British-Brazilian auteur Ritchie, is the result of his first trip to a hospital in Brazil. Shortly after moving to Brazil in the early 70s, he caught a terrible bout of dermatobiosis, a fly-borne disease commonly known in Brazil as Bern, which required about 2 weeks in a hospital, taking up to seven shots of highly strong psychotropic drugs, usually administered by nurses.

This poem was written about one nurse in particular, Ana Néri, who looked after Ritchie for most of his stay. Having grown in Britain, and thus used to the colder and often aloof nurses of NHS, he confused the openness of Ana with attempts to seduce him. The fact that he was “tripping off his balls” (not my words, but Ana’s technical report), and didn’t speak Portuguese probably helped making things more confusing.
Midnight in my room, she's coming up
I hear the steps in the stairwell, I see the door opening
A meat coloured lamp, blue sheets
Silk curtains, your naked body

Pois…

The Chucklefuck from Mesquita: A Chatuba de Mesquita

As a developing country, Brazil has a strong contrast between social classes and groups. This social contrast also re percuss into the poetry scene.
Groups coming from more humble neighborhoods decide to adopt local slangs and a more raw and aggressive way of expressing their feelings through words.
The following piece was created by one of these groups, called Hurricane Two-Thousand.
The title of this piece refers to the neighborhood of Chatuba, located in the district of Mesquita, in Rio de Janeiro. Chatuba is also a local slang, used as a verb (i.e. I will chatubar the party!) or as a noun (i.e. This place is a chatuba), meaning chuclefucking: a big messy and chaotic situation.

Attention, Chucklefuck has arrived
Let's crunk it up

Sex machine
I'd intercourse like an animal
The Chucklefuck from Mesquita
Of anal sex tram

Playboy brat
Anal sex funker
The Chucklefuck from Mesquita
Shags all the chicks

We walk wearing Redleys
We come to get women
The Chucklefuck from Mesquita
Of Nike Air tram

Chuc…

I threw the dick in the cat: Atirei o pau no gato

To celebrate the children's month we decided to post some juvenile poems.
This poem, particularly, is highly misunderstood.
It was not supposed to be childish. In fact "I threw the dick in the cat" is probably the first homossexual poem published in Brazil in the dictatorship period. Its author is unknown.
In this poem, the author tells the story of a man who had his first homossexual experiences with his housekeeper.
In the first lines, he explains that he 'threw' the dick in the cat (in Brazil, cat ['gato'] is a slang for 'handsome man'). After throwing his dick on the handsome man, he saw that the man didn't died, but he screamed. He is detailed, though, about his wife Chica's reaction.
The fact that the author is talking about his housekeeper was not noticed until recent researchers find out that when he emphatically repeats the last syllables of the last words, he says: dona chica-CA, admirou-se-SE,ber-RO. This syllables form the word case…

Embracing Brazilian Poetry

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