Vinícius de Moraes (October 1913 – 9 July 1980), was a Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist, and playwright. He served as a diplomat and composed bossa nova music.
“Farm afternoons, there’s much too much blue air.
I go out sometimes, follow the pasture track,
Chewing a blade of sticky grass, chest bare,
In threadbare pajamas of three summers back,
To the little rivulets in the river-bed
For a drink of water, cold and musical,
And if I spot in the brush a glow of red,
A raspberry, spit its blood at the corral.
The smell of cow manure is delicious.
The cattle look at me unenviously.
And when there comes a sudden stream and hiss.
Accompanied by a look not unmalicious,
All of us, animals, unemotionally
Partake together of a pleasant piss.”
Original poem by Vinícius de Moraes | translation from the French by Elizabeth Bishop – Uncollected Translations (1950 – 1975) to the book “POEMS, The Centenary Editions”, by Chatto & Windus Publisher, LONDON.