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Variety
Poetry

Sephirot

By
Alexis Levitin
Alexis Levitin
&
Leonor Scliar-Cabral
Issue 22
August 18, 2024
Header image design by Clarrie Feinstein.
Variety
Poetry
Issue 22
Sephirot

“Sephirot” is the first poem to appear in English from Leonor Scliar Cabral’s poignantly ironic collection Erotica of Old Age, which has been translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin.

‍

In a lost sphere there is a paradise
Awaiting me I don’t know when
And I must clamber through the withered
branches of the apple tree.

‍
The wild entanglement of my white hair
hides a world of dried-up thorns,
where I sought out a paradise of figs,
of apples, and of pomegranates.

‍

I am lost, but my dream is not,
and my cracked, torn flesh moans
these final drops that feed
what is already gone.

No items found.

Alexis Levitin

During the last half century, Alexis Levitin has published forty-eight books as a translator, primarily of poetry from Brazil, Portugal, and Ecuador. His works include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words, both published by New Directions. Three volumes of his translations of contemporary Portuguese poetry were published by Guernica Editions of Montreal and Toronto. Later this year, his translation of Leonor Scliar-Cabral’s Consecration of the Alphabet, a sonnet sequence devoted to the history of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, will be published by Ben Yehuda Press. His own short stories began in the fear-tinged isolation of the pandemic. Those stories gave him a new life. So far fifty-one of them have been published in various magazines in the United States and in Europe. A collection of his chess-related stories, The Last Ruy Lopez: Tales from the Royal Game, has just come out from Russell Enterprises.

  • Alexis Levitin

    During the last half century, Alexis Levitin has published forty-eight books as a translator, primarily of poetry from Brazil, Portugal, and Ecuador. His works include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words, both published by New Directions. Three volumes of his translations of contemporary Portuguese poetry were published by Guernica Editions of Montreal and Toronto. Later this year, his translation of Leonor Scliar-Cabral’s Consecration of the Alphabet, a sonnet sequence devoted to the history of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, will be published by Ben Yehuda Press. His own short stories began in the fear-tinged isolation of the pandemic. Those stories gave him a new life. So far fifty-one of them have been published in various magazines in the United States and in Europe. A collection of his chess-related stories, The Last Ruy Lopez: Tales from the Royal Game, has just come out from Russell Enterprises.

  • Leonor Scliar-Cabral

    Leonor Scliar-Cabral is a poet and psycholinguist in the field of literacy training. Her collections of poetry are: Sonnets, Memories of the Sephardim, Erotica of Old Age, The Sun Fell on the Guaíba, Consecration of the Alphabet, and José. Her poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, Blue Unicorn, Epoch, and elsewhere.

“Sephirot” is the first poem to appear in English from Leonor Scliar Cabral’s poignantly ironic collection Erotica of Old Age, which has been translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin.

‍

In a lost sphere there is a paradise
Awaiting me I don’t know when
And I must clamber through the withered
branches of the apple tree.

‍
The wild entanglement of my white hair
hides a world of dried-up thorns,
where I sought out a paradise of figs,
of apples, and of pomegranates.

‍

I am lost, but my dream is not,
and my cracked, torn flesh moans
these final drops that feed
what is already gone.

No items found.

Alexis Levitin

During the last half century, Alexis Levitin has published forty-eight books as a translator, primarily of poetry from Brazil, Portugal, and Ecuador. His works include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words, both published by New Directions. Three volumes of his translations of contemporary Portuguese poetry were published by Guernica Editions of Montreal and Toronto. Later this year, his translation of Leonor Scliar-Cabral’s Consecration of the Alphabet, a sonnet sequence devoted to the history of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, will be published by Ben Yehuda Press. His own short stories began in the fear-tinged isolation of the pandemic. Those stories gave him a new life. So far fifty-one of them have been published in various magazines in the United States and in Europe. A collection of his chess-related stories, The Last Ruy Lopez: Tales from the Royal Game, has just come out from Russell Enterprises.

  • Alexis Levitin

    During the last half century, Alexis Levitin has published forty-eight books as a translator, primarily of poetry from Brazil, Portugal, and Ecuador. His works include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words, both published by New Directions. Three volumes of his translations of contemporary Portuguese poetry were published by Guernica Editions of Montreal and Toronto. Later this year, his translation of Leonor Scliar-Cabral’s Consecration of the Alphabet, a sonnet sequence devoted to the history of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, will be published by Ben Yehuda Press. His own short stories began in the fear-tinged isolation of the pandemic. Those stories gave him a new life. So far fifty-one of them have been published in various magazines in the United States and in Europe. A collection of his chess-related stories, The Last Ruy Lopez: Tales from the Royal Game, has just come out from Russell Enterprises.

  • Leonor Scliar-Cabral

    Leonor Scliar-Cabral is a poet and psycholinguist in the field of literacy training. Her collections of poetry are: Sonnets, Memories of the Sephardim, Erotica of Old Age, The Sun Fell on the Guaíba, Consecration of the Alphabet, and José. Her poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, Blue Unicorn, Epoch, and elsewhere.