Daily Poem: Pyrargite Metal,9, by Cecilia Meireles

June 17, 2016 | Filed Under Poem for Hela | No Comments

Pyrargite Metal, 9
~Cecilia Meireles
Translated from Portuguese by Jams Merrill

The piano tuner spoke to me that tenderest
attender to each note
who ever looking over sharp and flat
hears and glimpses something more remote.
And his ears make no mistake
nor do his hands that in each chord awake
those sounds delighted to keep house together.

‘Disinterested is my interest:
I don’t confuse music and instrument, mere
piano tuner that I am,
calligrapher of that superhuman speech
which lifts me as a guest to its high sphere.
Oh! what new Physics waits up there to teach
other matters to another ear. .  .’

Leave a Reply

Archives: