Today’s New Verse News: FIRST ROUND, BRAZIL
by Indran Amirthanayagam
The former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking after election results were announced on Sunday. Mr. da Silva and President Jair Bolsonaro will face each other in a runoff later this month. Photo Credit: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
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It's a long night with strong emotion, the whole world is listening to the results, and after seventy percent counted Lula finally has a slight advantage. I am tranquil now, the world quiet. It's like the dice game between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, or between Putin and the allies, or it's just an election. We must not let our fears get out. We will see tomorrow. Let's go to work for the Amazon rainforest, for humble workers who appreciate the labor of one of their own. Lula, my brother, even though I live far from Brazil, today and always, I join the community of the left, of human and animal rights, of plant, forest and land rights. of rights that are going with you to the Alvorada Palace. *** É uma longa noite com uma emoção forte, todo o mundo está escutando os resultados e depois de setenta por cento contado Lula tem finalmente uma leve vantagem. Estou tranquilo agora. O mundo é tranquilo. É como o jogo de dados entre os Pandavas e os Kauravas, o entre Putin e os aliados, o é uma simples eleição. Não devemos deixar que os medos saiam. Veremos amanhã. Vamos a trabalhar para a Mata Amazonas, para os trabalhadores humildes que apreciam o labor dum deles, Lula, meu irmão. Ainda que moro longe da Brasil hoje e sempre me uno a comunidade da esquerda, dos direitos humanos e animais, de direitos de plantas e de floresta, de direitos da terra, de direitos que vão com você ao Palácio da Alvorada.
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Indran Amirthanayagam's newest book is Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks). Recently published is Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun.(Dialogos Books). In 2020, Indran produced a “world" record by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and has twenty poetry books as well as a music album Rankont Dout. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He won the Paterson Prize and received fellowships from The Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, US/Mexico Fund For Culture, and the MacDowell Colony. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.