Michal Kirschbaum é brasileira, argentina e israelense. É artista visual, investigadora e docente. Atualmente é doutoranda no programa de pós-graduação em Artes Visuais da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC). É mestre em Investigação Artística pela Universidade de Amsterdam (UvA). Pratica e investiga as relações e potências que tomam forma de escrita, fotografia e desenho a partir de questões relacionadas a produção e apresentação dos espaços e lugares. Trabalha também como professora na Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina no curso de graduação em Artes Visuais, onde ministra aulas de desenho e linguagem tridimensional.
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Michal Kirschbaum es brasileira, argentina e israelí. Es artista visual, investigadora y docente. Actualmente cursa doctorado en el programa de posgrado en Artes Visuales de la Universidad del Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC) y tiene una maestría en Investigación Artística por la Universidad de Amsterdam (UvA). Practica e investiga las relaciones y potencias que toman forma de escrita, fotografía y dibujo a partir de cuestiones relacionadas a la producción y presentación de los espacios y lugares. Trabaja también como profesora en la Universidad del Estado de Santa Catarina, en el curso de Artes Visuales donde da clases de grado de dibujo y lenguaje tridimensional.
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Michal Kirschbaum is Brazilian, Argentinian and Israeli. She is a visual artist, researcher and teacher. She is currently a PhD student of the graduate program in Visual Arts at the University of the State of Santa Catarina (UDESC). In 2013 she had obtained a master’s degree in Artistic Research from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). In her practice, she investigates the relations and potencies that take form in writing, photography and drawing from questions related to de production and presentation of spaces and places. She also works as a teacher in the University of the State of Santa Catarina in the undergraduate course of Visual Arts where she gives lessons of drawing and tridimensional perception.
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Obras de arte de Michal Kirshbaum/Obras de arte de Michal Kirshbaum/Artworks by Michal Kirschbaum
Metro, fotografía sobre madera, Photograph on wood, 4.5 cm. x 10.25 cm, 2009metro, fotografía sobre madera/photography on wood, 10 cm. x 10.45 cm, 2009camas/beds, fotografía, 65 cm v 95 cm, 2013Threshold, Play music performance — vinyl cut from digital photomontage
Sin título. grafito sobre papel, 30 cm. x 21 cm., 2017Sin título, nankin sobre papel, 30 cm. x 66 cm, 2016Sin título, nankin sobre paper, 21 cm. x 28 cm. 2016Sin título, grafito y collage sobre papel, 30 cm. x 20 cm. 2017Inner landscape, digital photomontage, 80 cm. x 80 cm., 2013 camino, fotomontaje digital, 29 cm., x 42 cm. 2013texto y paisaje, nankin sobre papel, 30 cm. x 21
Moacyr Jaime Scliar nasceu em Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, no 1937. A partir de 1943, cursa a Escola de Educação e Cultura, conhecida como Colégio Iídiche. Em 1948, transfere-se para o Colégio Rosário. Começa a cursar medicina em 1955, na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Especializou-se na área de saúde pública, tornando-se médico sanitarista e ocupando os cargos de chefe da equipe de Educação em Saúde da Secretaria da Saúde do Rio Grande do Sul e diretor do Departamento de Saúde Pública.
Na década de 1970, cursou pós-graduação em medicina, em Israel, e também se tornou doutor em Ciências pela Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública. Ainda na área médica, atuou como professor do curso de medicina da Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre.
O dia a dia de estudante de medicina inspirou a Scliar o seu primeiro livro, “Histórias de um médico em formação”, publicado em 1962. Foi o começo de uma brilhante carreira como ficcionista, durante a qual publicou mais de setenta livros, divididos entre romances, coletâneas de contos e crônicas, literatura infantojuvenil e ensaios. Seu romance “O centauro no jardim”, publicado em 1980, faz parte da lista dos 100 melhores livros de temática judaica dos últimos 200 anos, organizada pelo National Yiddish Book Center (EUA).
Scliar conquistou diversos prêmios literários, como, por exemplo: três prêmios Jabuti (nas categorias “romance” e “contos, crônicas e novelas”); o Prêmio da Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Arte, em 1989, na categoria “literatura”; e o Casa de las Americas, em 1989, na categoria “conto”. Seus livros foram traduzidos em inúmeros países.
Em 1993 e 1997, foi professor visitante na Brown University e na Universidade do Texas, ambas nos EUA.
Moacyr Scliar faleceu no 2011.
Adaptado de educação,uol,br
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Moacyr Jaime Scliar was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1937. From 1943, he attended the School of Education and Culture, known as Yiddish School. In 1948, he transferred to the Rosario School. He began to study medicine in 1955, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He specialized in public health. and was head of the Health Education team of the Rio Grande do Sul Health Secretariat South and director of the Department of Public Health.
In the 1970s, he did post-graduate studies in medicine in Israel, and also received a doctorate in science from the National School of Public Health. Also, in the medical area, he acted as professor of the medicine of the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre.
His experience as a medical student inspired Scliar his first book, “Stories of a Physician in Training,” published in 1962. It was the beginning of a brilliant career as a fictionist, during which he published more than seventy books, divided between novels, compilations of short stories and chronicles, children’s literature and essays. His novel “The Centaur in the Garden,” published in 1980, is one of the 100 best Jewish-themed books of the last 200 years, organized by the National Yiddish Book Center.
Scliar won several literary awards, such as three Jabuti awards (in the categories “romance” and “short stories, chronicles and novels”); the Prize of the Paulista Association of Art Critics, in 1989, in the category “Literature”; and the Casa de las Americas Prize, in 1989, in the category “short story”. His books have been translated into countless countries.
In 1993 and 1997, he was a visiting professor at Brown University and the University of Texas, both in the United States.
Moacyr Scliar passed away in 2011,
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“A vaca”
Numa noite de temporal, um navio naufragou ao largo da costa africana. Partiu-se ao meio, e foi ao fundo em menos de um minuto. Passageiros e tripulantes pererecam instantaneamente. Salvou-se apenas um marinheiro, projetado à distância no momento do desastre. Meio afogado, pois não era bom nadador, o marinheiro orava e despedia-se da vida, quando viu a seu lado, nadando com presteza e vigor, a vaca Carola.
A vaca Carola tinha sido embarcada em Amsterdam.
Excelente ventre, fora destinada a uma fazenda na América do Sul.
Agarrado aos chifres da vaca, o marinheiro deixou-se conduzir; e assim, ao romper do dia, chegaram a uma ilhota arenosa, onde a vaca depositou o infeliz rapaz, lambendo-Ilhe o rosto até que ele acordasse.
Notando que estava numa ilha deserta, o marinheiro rompeu em prantos: “Ai de mim! Esta ilha está fora de todas as rotas! Nunca mais verei um ser humano!” Chorou muito, prostrado na areia, enquanto a vaca Carola fitava-o com os grandes olhos castanhos.
Finalmente, o jovem enxugou as lágrimas e pôs-se de pé.
Olhou ao redor: nada havia na ilha, a não ser rochas pontiagudas e umas poucas árvores raquíticas. Sentiu forme: chamou a vaca: “Vem Carola!”. Ordenou-a e bebeu leite bom e espumante. Sentiu-se melhor; sentiu-se e ficou a olhar o oceano. “Ai de mim” – gemia de vez em quando, mas já sem muita convicção; o leite fizera-lhe bem.
Naquela noite dormiu abraça o á vaca. Foi um sono bom, cheio de sonhos reconfortantes: e quando acordou – ali estava o ubre a ilhe oferecer o leite abundante.
Os dias foram passando e o rapaz cada vez mais se apegava a vaca. “Vem, Carola!” Ela vinha, obediente.
Ele cortava um pedaço de carne tenra – gostava muito de língua – e devorava-o cru, ainda quente, o sangue escorrendo pelo queixo. A vaca nem mugia. Lambia as feridas, apernas. O marinheiro tinha sempre o cuidado de não ferir órgãos vitais; se tirava um pulmão; deixava o outro; comeu o baço, mas não o coração, etc.
Com os pedaços de couro, o marinheiro fez roupas e -sapatos e um toldo para abriga-lo do sol e da chuva. Amputou a cauda de Carola e usava-a para espantar as moscas.
Quando a carne começou a escassear, atrelou a vaca a um tosco arado, feito de galhos, e lavrou um pedaço de terra mais fértil, entre as árvores.
Usou o excremento do animal como adubo. Como fosse escasso, triturou alguns ossos, para usá-los como fertilizante.
Semeou alguns grãos de milho, que tinham ficado nas cáries da dentadura de Carola. Logo, as plantinhas começaram a brotar e o rapaz sentiu renascer a esperança.
Na festa de São João comeu canjica.
A primavera chegou. Durante a noite uma brisa suave soprava de lugares remotos, trazendo sus aromas.
Olhando as estrelas, o marinheiro suspirava. Uma noite, arrancou um dos olhos de Carola, misturou-o com água do mar e engoliu esta leve massa. Teve visões voluptuosas, como nenhum mortal jamais experimentou. . . Transportado de desejo, aproximou-se da vaca. . . E ainda desta vez, foi Carola quem ilhe valeu.
Muito tempo se passou, e um dia o marinheiro avistou um navio no horizonte. Doido de alegria, berrou com todas as forças, mais não Ihe respondiam; o navio estava muito longe. O marinheiro arrancou um de chifres de Carola e improvisou uma corneta. O som poderoso atroou os ares, mas ainda assim não obteve reposta.
O rapaz desesperava-se; a noite caia e o navio afastava-se de ilha. Finalmente, o rapaz deitou Carola no chão e jogou um fósforo aceso no ventre ulcerado de Carola, onde um pouco de gordura ainda aparecia.
Rapidamente, a vaca incendiou-se. Em meio á fumaça negra, fitava o marinheiro com seu único olho bom. O rapaz estremeceu, julgou ter visto uma lágrima. Mas foi só impressão.
O claro chamou atenção do comandante do navio; uma lancha veio recolher o marinheiro. Iam aí partir, aproveitando a mar, quando o rapaz gritou: “Um momento!”; voltou para a ilha, e apandou, do montículo de cinzas fumegantes, um punhado que guardou dentro do gibão de couro. “Adeus, Carola – murmurou. Os tripulantes da lancha se entreolharam. “É o sol” – disse um.
O marinheiro chegou a seu país natal. Abandonou a vida do mar e tornou-se um rico e respeitado granjeiro, dono de um tambo com centenas de vacas.
Mas a pesar disto, vivou infeliz e solitário, tendo pesadelos horríveis todas as noites, até os quarenta anos. Chegando a esta idade, viajou a Europa de navio.
Uma noite, insone, deixou o luxuoso camarote e subiu ao tombadilho iluminado pelo luar. Acendeu um cigarro, apoiou-se na amura e ficou olhando o mar..
De repente estirou o pescoço, ansioso. Avistara uma ilhota no horizonte.
— Alô – disse alguém, pelo dele.
Voltou-se. Era uma bela loira, de olhos castanhos e busto opulento.
— Meu nome é Carola – disse ela.
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De:/From: Moacyr Scliar. Sus mejores cuentos. São Paulo, 1996.
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“The Cow”
On a stormy night, a ship went down off the African coast. It broke in half, and went to the bottom in less than a minute. Passengers and crewmen perished instantly. Only one sailor was saved, thrust out at a distance at the moment of the disaster. Half-drowned, since he wasn’t a good swimmer, the sailor prayed and said goodbye to his life, when he saw at his side, swimming quickly and vigorously, the cow Carola.
The cow, Carola had been put onboard in Amsterdam.
Excellent belly, she was destined for a farm in South America.
Grasping on the cow’s horns, the sailor let himself be guided, and so, at the break of day, they arrived at a little sandy island where the cow deposited the unhappy boy, licking him on his face until he woke up.
Noticing that he was on a desert island, the sailor broke out wailing: “Woe is me!” The island is outside al the shipping routes. I’ll never see a human being again.” He cried a great deal, prostrated on the sand, while the cow Carola stared at him with chestnut eyes.
Finally, the boy dried his tears and stood up. He looked around: there was nothing on the island, but sharp rocks and a few rickety trees. He felt hungry: he called the cow: “Come Carola!” He ordered her and he drank good and frothy milk. He felt better; he felt and he turned to look at the ocean. “Woe is me” – he sighed from time to time, but now without much conviction: the mild did him good.
The sailor arrived at his native land. He abandoned the sailor’s life and became a rich and respected farmer, owner of a dairy farm with hundreds of cows.
That night he slept hugging the cow. I was a good dream; full of comforting sounds; and when he awoke – there was the utter offering him abundant milk.
The days passed, and the boy more and more fond of the cow. “Come, Carola!” She came obediently.
He cut off a piece of tender meat—he liked the tongue a lot—and he devoured it raw, still hot, the blood flowing over his chin. The cow didn’t moo. She hardly licked her wounds. The sailor always took care to no injure the vital organs; he took out a lung; he left the other one; he ate the spleen, but not the heart, etc.
With the pieces of leather, the sailor made clothing and shoes and a canopy/awning to protect himself from the sun and the rea. He amputated Carola’s tail and used it to chase flies away.
When the meat began to become scarce, he harnessed the cow to a crude plow, made of pieces of wood and tilled a piece of the most fertile land among the trees.
He used the animal’s excrement for compost. As it was scarce, he ground up some bones, to use them as fertilizer.
He planted some grains of corn, which he had stuck in the cavities of Carola’s teeth. Then, the plants began to sprout and the boy felt a resurgence of hope.
On Saint John’s Day, he ate hominy.
Spring arrived. During the night, a gentle breeze blew in from remote places, bringing their fragrances.
Gazing at the stars, the sailor sighed. One night, he tore out one of Carola’s eyes, mixed it with seawater and swallowed this light paste. He had voluptuous visions, as no mortal had ever experienced. . . Carried away with desire, he came near the cow. . . And this time too, it was Carola whom he wanted.
A great deal of time passed, and one day, the sailor caught sight of a ship on the horizon. Crazy with happiness, he hollered with his strength, but nothing, but there was no answer; the ship was very far away. The sailor tore off one of Carola’s horns and improvised a bugle. The powerful sound thundered through the air, but even so, it wasn’t answered.
The boy was losing hope; it was nightfall and the ship remained at a distance from the island. Finally, the boy laid Carola down on the ground and threw down a match and lit Carola’s ulcerated belly on fire, at a spot where a little bit of fat still appeared.
Rapidly, the cow caught fire. Amidst the black smoke, she stared at the sailor with her only good eye. The boy trembled and was sure he had seen a tear. But it was only an impression.
The bright light caught the attention of the commander of the ship, a launch set out to rescue the sailor. Leaving there, taking advantage of the sea, when the boy shouted: One moment!”; he returned to the island, and gathered, from the little pile of smoking ashes, a handful that he saved inside of his leather doublet. “Goodbye, Carola” – he murmured. The crew of the launch looked at one another. “It’s the sun!” one said.
But, in spite of this, he lived unhappy and alone, having horrible nightmares every night for forty years. Reaching this age, he travelled to Europe by ship.
One night, suffering insomnia, he left the luxurious cabin and went up to the quarterdeck, lit up by the moonlight.
Suddenly, he stretched his neck anxiously. He caught sight of a small island on the horizon.
“Hello,” said someone nearby him.
He turned around. It was a beautiful blond, with chestnut eyes and an opulent bust.
Memo Ánjel (José Guillermo Ángel) nació en Medellín, Colombia, como hijo de inmigrantes argelinos en 1954. Además de su oeuvre literario, Ánjel ha trabajado por 16 years como professor of de Comunicación Social en la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana en Medellín.
Algunos de sus libros: La luna verde de Atocha (novela); La casa de las cebollas (novela), Todos los sitios son Berlín (novela), Libreta de apuntes de Yehuda Malaji, relojero sefardí (Ejercicios de imaginación sobre la conformación de los pecados), Zurich es una letra alef (novela), Tanta gente (novela), El tercer huevo de la gallina (novela) y Calor intenso (cuentos).
Considera la escritura como una actividad existencial, algo que le ayuda a analizarse a sí mismo y a reconocer la naturaleza de los demás. Profundamente en el sentido de la tolerancia y la vida misma. Según Anjel, solo el conocimiento necesario de lo que nos rodea nos permite sobrevivir y dar a nuestra existencia la suficiente transparencia.
Ánjel es uno de un grupo de autores colombianos modernos que ya no piensan y escriben de una manera específicamente colombiana, sino universal. “En todo el mundo, las personas tienen experiencias similares, ya sea que vivan en Colombia o en Alemania: tienen familia, trabajan, sufren y experimentan las mismas tragedias, la guerra y la emigración”.
Ánjel ha realizado un intenso estudio de los clásicos judíos, y en muchas de sus obras examina su propia historia sefardí y la cuestión de lo que significa ser un judío sefardí en la cultura de asimilación actual. Ha escrito varios ensayos sobre la contribución de la cultura árabe al desarrollo de la civilización occidental y el papel de la cultura y la historia judías en las ideas literarias y filosóficas contemporáneas.
Memo Anjel (José Guillermo Ángel) was born in Medellín, Columbia, as the child of Algerian immigrants in 1954. Besides his literary oeuvre, Anjel has worked for 16 years as a professor of social communication at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín.
Some of his books: La luna verde de Atocha (novel) La casa de cebollas (novel), Todos los sitios son Berlín (novel), Libreta de apuntes de Yehuda Malaji, relojero sefardí (Ejercicios de imaginación sobre la conformación de los pecados), Zurich es una letra alef (novel), Tanta gente (novel), El tercer huevo de la gallina (novel) and Calor intenso (stories).
He regards writing as an existential activity, something that helps him to analyse himself and to recognise the nature of others, in order to look deeply at the meaning of tolerance and life itself. According to Anjel, only the necessary knowledge of what surrounds us enables us to survive at all and to give our existence sufficient transparency.
Ánjel is one of a group of modern Colombian authors who no longer think and write in a specifically Columbian, but rather universal way. “All over the world, people have similar experiences ? whether they live in Columbia or Germany: they have a family, work, suffer, and experience the same tragedies, war and emigration.”
Anjel has made an intense study of Jewish classics, and in many of his works he examines his own Sephardic history and the question of what it means to be a Sephardic Jew in today’s culture of assimilation. He has written several essays on the contribution of Arabic culture to the development of occidental civilisation and the role of Jewish culture and history in contemporary literary and philosophical ideas.
Por esos días la gente bajaba de los barcos después de un viaje en el que ya perdían una tierra vieja y peligrosa y se ganaba otra de la que se sabía poco o nada. Abrían mucho los ojos cuando veían tanto verde y gente de colores diversos. Las guías de viaje mencionaban más hombres con maracas y mujeres de pollera, que puertos que hervían del calor y el movimiento. Pero como sea que como fuera, el mundo estaba revuelto, los barcos seguían llegando a estas tierras y se devolvían con las bodegas repletas de banano, plátano, carbón y cobre. Y en esto de barcos con gente que desembarcaba y se ponía nerviosa, Shmuel Baruj bajó de un paquebote que atravesó el mar en casi cuarto semanas. Mucha agua, mucha gente distinta con pequeña carga al lado: maletas, sacos, pequeñas cajas. Los puertos se multiplicaron en este viaje y él, que venía de Hamburgo en segunda clase y con dos maletas de tamaño mediano, conoció los colores del agua, los movimientos de los marineros, la casa de máquinas, el ir y venir de las olas y a muchas personas que no querían hablar de lo que había pasado, y preferían chalar sobre las noticias, el tiempo o la baraja con los que jugaban. Las preguntas sobre el pasado, rebotaron contra las caras. Y en ese barco en el que unos jugaban, otros leían libros sagrados y los demás no paraban de mirarse y luego bajar los ojos. Shmuel Baruj conoció a una mujer, bailó con ella en la proa, se amaron en un camarote pobre y antes de que él llegara a Barranquilla, ella se quedó en La Guaira. Allí, al bajarse, la acompañaron unos hombres de barba y sombrero negro grande. Nunca supo si judíos ortodoxos o algún grupo protestante. Shmuel Baruj no habló de religión con la mujer y prefirió decirle que sus ojos eran como soles y que le podía adivinar la suerte en la palma de la mano. Ella se dejó y él le dijo: vas a ser una buena mujer. Ese día se amaron lento, como si ella fuera una geografía que él se estuviera aprendiendo. Después, cuando la vio bajar en el puerto de la Guaira, arrastrando un pequeño baúl con ruedas, le dijo lo mismo. La mujer vestía un traje de flores que le quedaba un poco amplio y largo, y se había quitado el maquillaje de la cara. Ya no era la mujer alegre del barco sino alguien que cumpliría muchos deberes. Mucho calor, eso sintió Shmuel Baruj cuando ella se perdió por entre las calles del puerto, detrás de esos hombres que parecían cuervos cansados. Todos terminamos perdidos, se dijo él. Apoyado en la barda, miraba el mar y las casas, el vuelo de los pájaros y el cielo sin una nube, azul e infinito. A su lado y a la altura de las rodillas, permanecían sus dos maletas. Shmuel Baruj, antes de que le dieran la visa, había pulido metales en un taller de Hannover, vendido abrigos recosidos en Bremen, arreglado relojes y motores en Bonn y al fin, después de un recorrido loco en bicicleta huyendo de unas deudas que no eran las suyas, terminó recibiendo ayudas de unos y otros en un campo de refugiados en Frankfurt, al que llegó con una mano machacada, se la había mordido un motor, enfermo de los pulmones, con la circulación de la sangre mala, entre los codos y los hombros, y vencido y, entonces, quiso morirse. Pero no murió, la tos se le redujo con pastillas de penicilina, igual que los calambres en los brazos con pomadas, la mano le secó bien y acabó como habitante de ese campo que no fue de tiendas militares sino de calles estrechas y casas semi derruidas en los que unos esperaban irse a los Estados Unidos, a Palestina, Bolivia o Argentina donde tenían familias o decían tenerlas, y otros simplemente estaban clavados allí habitando el azar, fumando en las esquinas, leyendo periódicos y avisos pegados en las paredes, bebiendo una mala vodka en los bares, jugando a las cartas y mirando a las mujeres que se prostituían. Tres de ellas eran enanas y las llamaban el ejército. Shmuel Baruj fumaba con ellas, les contaba chistes y, como se rumoró por ahí, les enseñó algunos trucos de magia para alucinar clientes. Cuando las enanas no estaban (o si estaban, pero en su oficio), el hombre recogía periódicos, ayudaba a atender bares, cargaba alimentos para llevar a las bodegas, jugó algún partido de fútbol y se dejó acoger por una mujer que lloraba cada vez que oía el nombre de Abraham, que pudo ser el de su padre o su marido, pero nunca dijo nada y nadie se inquietó por eso. Los que habían salido la guerra no abrían la boca más de lo necesario. Decían sí, no, está bien, me gusta, podría ser más tarde, no más. Y los demás entendían: con estar de pie, beber una cerveza o ir hasta la pared donde ponían los avisos, tenían. La mujer a veces leía avisos, miraba los nombres tachados y los sin tachar. Y mientras miraba, sacaba la lengua y se la mordía un poco. Luego se humedecía los labios y salía a caminar con las manos metidas entre los bolsillos del delantal, pues siempre llevó un delantal y un trozo de pan que mordisqueaba. Con ella, Shmuel bailó el tango, en los días y en las noches, hasta que la vio montar a un camión que la llevaría al puerto y luego a Israel, que ya se había fundado y recibía gente de los campos. La mujer llevaba una maleta amarilla y una bandera, y se sentó entre dos hombres que parecían dormidos. Antes, Shmuel Baruj no había querido inscribirse con los de la Agencia Judía, asegurando que una hermana le estaba buscando visa para la Argentina. Mintió y la mujer que lloraba se encogió de hombros. No era fea, se le veía bien la ropa y las medias dobladas a la altura del tobillo, el delantal le daba un aire de muy limpia, sus manos eran finas y tenía los ojos muy redondos. Pero lloraba y los lloros le duraban una tarde entera y a veces hasta una noche. Después de la guerra siguieron otras pequeñas guerras, y en una de ellas Shmuel Baruj consiguió un pasaporte de la Cruz Roja. Paria, decía ahí. Y estaba bien, un paria no tiene historia. Hacía un calor intenso cuando Shmuel Baruj pisó Puerto Colombia. Paisaje azul de muchos tonos, hombres y mujeres negras, casas de paredes blancas, mercadillos de frutas y carnes secas, gringos de vestidos de lino y sombrero panamá, barcos pequeños entrando y saliendo del puerto y la bahía, monjas caminando en fila hacia algún convento y él, ahí, pensando que nadie hablaría alemán ni yidish en ese lugar al que había llegado porque sí, como si un dibbuck[1] lo hubiera tomado de los pies y tirado por los aires hasta caer en el paquebote donde llegó. El caso era que ya estaba en Puerto Colombia y le gustó el sonido del nombre de la ciudad, le gustó que estuviera en el Caribe, le gustó la cara de la mujer gorda que estaba detrás del policía que le selló el pasaporte. Todo le gustó porque lo que viniera sería ganancia, incluido el tener que volver a salir si las cosas se complicaban. Había sabido de mosquitos, fiebres, mordeduras de serpiente, delirios debido al exceso de sol, de selvas que se comían a los hombres y sus canoas porque los ríos se ampliaban y cerraban como una boca. Le dijeron cosas como salidas de libros y él no hizo más que sonreír. Y ya estaba aquí. Acabó en un pequeño hotel que olía a pintura de aceite, en una habitación con un abanico que mal revolvía el aire y tenía una ventana que daba a un campo de tierra roja. Y allí se quedó dormido con los zapatos puestos, abrazando una de las maletas. Una semana completa, recibiendo el sol, comiendo bocachico con patacón y bebiendo cerveza, pasó Shmuel Baruj en Puerto Colombia. En el hotel le cambiaron unos dólares por pesos, se encamó con una negra de caderas grandes y conoció a un médico alemán, que resultó siendo un mero enfermero y en lugar de ejercer en algún hospital, tenía una finca de bananos y venía cada tanto al puerto para recibir mercancías y correspondencia, eso dijo. La negra caderona los presentó y el alemán, que era chico y gordo y había llegado antes de la guerra, le escribió en un cuaderno cien palabras en español a Shmuel Baruj. Entre ellas había vulgaridades, por si te pisan o te empujan, le dijo. Y no lo volvió a ver, porque dos días después Shmuel Baruj tomó un bus hacia Barranquilla y cerca de donde lo dejó el bus encontró una pensión. Allí usó dos palabras en español; dormir, comer. Lo atendió una puna mujer que no paraba de reír, con las manos llenas de pulseras y las uñas muy rojas. Quiso ayudarle con las maletas, pero Shmuel Baruj no lo permitió. Al fondo de la pensión, en un patio de baldosas amarillas, unos pájaros de picos grandes, encerrados en una jaula, picoteaban un plátano gordo. Olía a comino esa pensión y de algún lugar llegaba una música de trompetas. El sol pegaba con furia contra las ventanas. En la habitación, donde a más de la cama y una bacinilla, una jarra con agua y un vaso sobre el nochero, un foco que colgaba del techo, un taburete con una toalla encima y un abanico que daba vueltas lentas sin refrescar, había también un almanaque de cerveza Águila y una página de revista, enmarcada, de una mujer al lado de una piscina. Shmuel Baruj sonrió: la tierra son muchas cosas. Se quitó el saco, la camisa y los zapatos. Luego tomó una de las maletas y la abrió sobre la cama: contenía destornilladores, pequeñas tenazas, puntillas, algunos martillos finos. Allí usó puntillas, tornillos, algunos martillos finos, un par de reglas y trozos de terciopelo de variados colores, un termómetro y dos tubos de ensayo, acompañados de unas bolsitas con anilina. Aquí está mi negocio, se dijo. Bebió un poco de agua y abrió la otra maleta: un par de camisas, un abrigo que no usaría en estos calores, algunos interiores y medias, tres pantalones (uno de trabajo), una cartera con dólares y marcos, un libro del Zohar[2] que no llegaría a leer porque estaba en arameo, un sidur[3] con las hojas grasosas, un espejo, una maquinilla de afeitar, un juego de peines, una candela marca Ronson, un par de zapatos combinados, un clarinete, el libro de Los Hermanos Karamazov en alemán, tres fotografías de familia y algunas cartas sin abrir. Y aquí estoy yo. Soy lo único que queda, murmuró. Fue hasta el taburete, se sentó y miró el almanaque: cinco de abril de 1952. El abanico que se movía en el techo no cortaba el aire caliente. Por debajo de la puerta entraba la música de trompetas y se oían las risas de la mujer que lo había atendido. Shmuel Baruj comenzó a rezar, se pasó un pañuelo por la frente y sintió su sudor. De aquí en adelante amén a todo, se dijo. Se paró del taburete y se miró al espejo. No se veía mal con el sombrero que llevaba puesto.
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[1] Pequeño duende del folclor de los judíos de Europa Oriental.
[2] El libro de los resplandores, escrito por Moshé de León, en España, en el siglo XIII.
Those days, people were getting off the ships after a trip in which they already were losing an old and dangerous country and were gaining another of which they knew little or nothing. Their eyes were opening wide when they were seeing so much green and people of diverse colors. The travel guidebooks mentioned that there would be more men with maracas and women with over-skirts, that the ports were boiling with heat and movement. But be that as it may, the world was turbulent, the ships kept arriving at these lands and were returned back with their hulls filled with bananas, plantains, coal and copper. And in this of ships with people who were disembarking and were becoming nervous, Shmuel Baruj came down off a packet boat that crossed the sea in almost four weeks. A lot of water, a lot of different people, four weeks. A lot of water, a lot of different people with their small baggage at their sides: suitcases, sacks, small boxes. The ports multiplied in his voyage, and he, who was coming from Hamburg in second class and with two suitcases of average size, was familiar with the colors of the water, the movements of the sailors on the decks, the engine room, the comings and goings of the waves and many people who didn’t want to talk about what had happened and preferred to chat about the news, the weather or the deck of cards they were playing with. The questions about the past bounced back from their faces. And that ship in which some were playing cards, others reading sacred books, and the others didn’t stop looking at each other and then lowering their eyes, Shmuel Baruj met a woman, danced with her in the prow, they made love in a dismal cabin, and before he arrived at Barranquilla, she stayed in La Guaira. There, on disembarking, she was accompanied by some men with beards and large black hats. He never learned whether they were orthodox Jews or some protestant group. Shmuel Baruj didn’t speak about religion with the woman and preferred to tell her that her eyes were like suns and that he could discern her fortune in the palm of her hand. She let him, and he told her: you are going to be a good woman. That day, they made love slowly, as if she were a geography that he was learning. Later, when he saw her get off in the port of La Guaira, pulling along a small trunk with wheels, he said the same. The woman was wearing a flowered dress that was a little loose and large, she had taken off her makeup. She was no longer the happy woman of the ship, but someone who would carry out many obligations. A lot of heat, that is what Shmuel Baruj felt as he lost her in the streets of the port, behind those men who seemed like tired crows. We all end up lost, he said to himself. Leaning on the cover, he looked at the sea and the houses, the flight of the birds and the cloudless sky, blue and infinite. At his side, at the height of his knees, his two suitcases stood. Shmuel Baruj, before they gave him the visa, had polished metals in a workshop in Hannover, sold patched overcoats in Bremen, fixed watches and motors in Bonn, and finally, after a crazy bicycle ride fleeing some debts of that weren’t his, ended up receiving help from some folks in a refugee camp in Frankfort, where he arrived with a mangled hand, a motor had bitten in to him, sick lungs, with poor blood circulation, between his elbows and his shoulders, and defeated and, then, he wanted to die. But he didn’t die, the cough was suppressed by some penicillin tablets, the same with ointments for the cramps in his arms, his hand dried out well, and he ended up as an inhabitant of that camp that wasn’t of military tents, but rather narrow streets and semi-destroyed houses in which some were waiting to leave for the United States. Palestine, Bolivia or Argentina where they had families or said that they had them, and others were still stuck there living, leaving it to fate, smoking on the corners, reading newspapers and ads stuck up on the walls, drinking bad vodka in the bars, playing cards and watching women who were prostituting themselves. Three of those were midgets and they were called the army. Shmuel Baruj smoke with them, told them jokes, and as it was rumored there, taught them some magic tricks to deceive their clients. When the midgets weren’t around (or they were, but on the job,) the man collected newspapers, helped out at bars, loaded food stuffs to carry to the grocery stores, played a game of soccer and let himself be embraced by a woman who cried every time she heard the name Abraham, who could be her father of her husband, but she never said anything and nobody worried about that. Those who had left the war didn’t open their mouths more than necessary. The said yes, no, it’s ok, I like it, perhaps later, no more. And the others understood: by standing up, drinking a beer or going as far as the wall where the ads were put, they had to. At times, the woman read ads, looked at the names crossed out and those not crossed out. And while was looking, she was sticking out her tongue and chewing it a little. The she moistened her lips and went out to walk with her hands put between the pockets of her apron, since she always wore an apron and had a bit of bread that she nibbled. With her, Shmuel danced the tango, day and night. until he saw her get on a truck that would take her to the port and then to Israel, which had been founded and was receiving people from the camps. The woman was carrying a yellow suitcase and a flag, and she sat between two men who seemed to be asleep. Earlier, Shmuel Baruj hadn’t wanted to register with the Jewish Agency, assuring them that a sister was seeking a visa for him to Argentina. He lied and the woman who was crying, shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t ugly, she looked good in her cloths and stockings folded over at her ankles, the apron gave her a very clean appearance, her hands were fine and she had very round eyes. But she cried and the tears went on for an afternoon and at times into the night. After the war, other small wars followed, and in one of them, Shmuel Baruj obtained a passport from the Red Cross. Stateless, it said on it. And that was fine, a stateless person doesn’t have a history. It was intensely hot when Shmuel Baruj stepped onto Puerto Colombia. Blue landscape of many tones, black men and women, houses with white walls, small markets of fruits and dried meats, Americans in linen suits and Panama hats, small boats entering and leaving the port and the bay, nuns walking in line toward some convent, and he, there, thinking that nobody would speak German or Yiddish in that place where he arrived, just because, as if a dybbuk[1] had taken his legs and thrown him in the air until he fell into the packet boat where he arrived. The fact was that he was already in Puerto Colombia, and he liked the sound of the name of the city, he liked the fact that he was in the Caribbean, he liked the face of the fat woman who was behind the policeman who stamped his passport. He liked everything because whatever might come, would be winnings, including having to leave again if things got complicated. He had known about mosquitos, fevers, snakebites, delirium because an excess of sun, of jungles that eat up men and their canoes because the rivers widen and close up like a mouth. They told him things that seemed to come from books, and he only smiled. And he was already here. He ended up in a small hotel that smelled like oil paint, in a room with a fan that moved the air poorly and had a window facing an a field of red dirt. And there, he fell asleep with his shoes on, hugging one of the suitcases. A full week, taking the sun, eating bocachico fish with fried bananas, Shmuel Baruj spent in Puerto Colombia. In the hotel, he exchanged some dollars for pesos, he had sex with black woman with large hips and met a German doctor, who turned out to be a mere nurse, and instead of working in a hospital, he owned a banana farm and, every once in a while, came into the port to collect merchandise and correspondence, so he said. The big-hipped black woman introduced them and the German who was small and fat and had arrived a year before the war, and wrote for Schmuel, in a notebook, a hundred words in Spanish. Among them were vulgarities, in case they step on you or push you, he told him. And he never saw him again, because two days later, Shmuel Baruj took a bus toward Barranquilla, and he found a pension near where the bus left him. There he used two words in Spanish: sleeping, eating. He was attended by a mountain woman who didn’t stop laughing, with her hands full of bracelets and her nails very red. She wanted to help him with the suitcases, but Shmuel Baruj didn’t permit it. At the rear of the pension, in a patio with yellow tiles, some birds with large beaks, enclosed in a cage, picked at a fat plantain. This pension smelled of cumin, and from somewhere trumpet music could be heard. The sun was striking with fury against the windows. In the room, where, besides the bed and a basin, a pitcher of water and a glass on the night table, a lightbulb was hanging from the ceiling, a stool with a towel on it and a fan that turned slowly without cooling, there also was an almanac from Aguila beer, and a picture from a magazine, framed, of a woman by the side of a swimming pool. Shmuel Baruj smiled: the world is many things. He took off his jacket, his shirt and shoes. Then, he took one of the suitcases and opened it on the bed: it contained screwdrivers, small pliers, brads, screws, a few fine hammers, a pair of rulers, a thermometer and two test tubes, accompanied by little bags of aniline dye. Here is my trade, he said to himself. He drank a little water and opened the other suitcase: a pair of shirts, an overcoat that he wouldn’t use in this heat, several sets of underwear and socks, three pairs of pants (one for work,) a wallet with dollars and marks, a book of the Zohar[2] that he’d never read because it was in Aramaic, a siddur[3] with greasy pages, a small shaver, A set of combs, a Ronson cigarette lighter, a pair of color coordinated shoes, a clarinet, The Brothers Karamazov in German, three photographs of his family and some unopened letters. And here I am, I am the only thing left, he murmured. He went to the stool, sat down and looked at the almanac: April 5, 1952. The fan that was moving in the ceiling didn’t cut through the hot air. From under the door, the trumpet music was coming in and the laughter of the woman who had attended was heard. Shmuel Baruj began to pray, he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and felt the sweat. From here on, amen to everything, he said to himself. He got up from the stool and looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look bad with the hat was wearing.
_____________________
[1] Small spirit from Eastern European Jewish folklore.
[2] The Book of Splendor, written by Moshé de León, in Spain, in the thirteenth century.
Gyula Kosice fue un escultor judío-eslovaco nacionalizado argentino (1927-2016). En la década de los cuarenta contribuyó a la difusión de las vanguardias europeas en Argentina. Integrado en el movimiento Madí y en el grupo Arte Concreto-Invención, que sólo aceptaba la abstracción, se vinculó posteriormente al arte cinético. Ha realizado lo que él ha denominado «estructuras hidrocinéticas», formas geométricas en plástico, combinando escultura y arquitectura, en las que se producen efectos lumínicos utilizando el agua y medios mecánicos. Destaca el Hidromural móvil (1967), en el edificio Embassy Center de Buenos Aires
Establecido en Buenos Aires desde los cuatro años de edad, estudió escultura y dibujo en las Academias Libres. Kosice, que había sido uno de los fundadores de la revista Arturo, creó en 1946 el movimiento de arte Madí, palabra inventada por él mismo. Este movimiento constituyó la primera tendencia de origen genuinamente argentino. Si bien tuvo vinculaciones con las investigaciones formales del arte concreto europeo, el Madí aportó un carácter original, que propició una apertura a experiencias plásticas inéditas.
Las obras expuestas en la primera exposición colectiva de arte Madí, que tuvo lugar en 1946, fueron trabajos realizados con materiales poco convencionales, como vidrio, madera y metal, y de formas inusitadas, como cuadros de marcos irregulares y módulos móviles, entre otras. Lo insólito de estas propuestas provocó un intenso debate en el medio artístico argentino, con adhesiones entusiastas y no menos vehementes impugnaciones. Además de Gyula Kosice, integraron el movimiento de arte Madí, entre otros, Carmelo Arden Quin, Rhod Rothfus, Martín Blaszko, Juan Bay y Salvador Presta.
Kosice fue Artista en constante renovación y teórico que ha analizado en profundidad los problemas estéticos del arte contemporáneo, en su producción artística dentro de los lineamientos formales de la estética Madí presentó pinturas articuladas (planos irregulares pintados y unidos entre sí) y esculturas realizadas con materiales industriales (maderas, metales, yeso, plexiglás, hilos), algo inusual por entonces. En su evolución posterior, siempre innovador, se vinculó al arte cinético, creando esculturas móviles en que el agua y los efectos lumínicos desempeñan un destacado papel.
Gyula Kosice was a Jewish-Slovak nationalized Argentine sculptor (1927-2016). In the 1940s he contributed to the diffusion of the European avant-gardes in Argentina. Integrated into the Madí movement and the Arte Concreto-Invención group, which only accepted abstraction, it was subsequently linked to kinetic art. He has done what he has called “hydrokinetic structures”, geometric shapes in plastic, combining sculpture and architecture, in which light effects are produced using water and mechanical means. Highlights the Mobile Hydromural (1967), in the Embassy Center building in Buenos Aires.
Established in Buenos Aires since he was four years old, he studied sculpture and drawing at the Free Academies. Kosice, who had been one of the founders of Arturo magazine, created the Madí art movement in 1946, a word invented by himself. This movement was the first trend of genuinely Argentine origin. Although it had links with the formal investigations of European concrete art, the Madí brought an original character, which led to an opening to unpublished plastic experiences.
The works exhibited in the first collective exhibition of Madí art, which took place in 1946, were made with unconventional materials, such as glass, wood and metal, and unusual shapes, such as frames of irregular frames and mobile modules, among others. The unusualness of these proposals provoked an intense debate in the Argentine artistic milieu, with enthusiastic adhesions and no less vehement impugnations. In addition to Gyula Kosice, they integrated the Madí art movement, among others, Carmelo Arden Quin, Rhod Rothfus, Martín Blaszko, Juan Bay and Salvador Presta.
Kosice was an artist in constant renovation and a theoretician who has analyzed in depth the aesthetic problems of contemporary art, in his artistic production within the formal guidelines of aesthetics Madí presented articulated paintings (irregular planes painted and linked together) and sculptures made with materials industrial (wood, metals, plaster, plexiglass, threads), something unusual at that time. In its later evolution, always innovative, it was linked to kinetic art, creating mobile sculptures in which water and light effects play an outstanding role.
David Preiss (Santiago, 1973) es autor de los libros de poemas Señor del vértigo, Y demora el alba, Oscuro mediodía y Bocado así como de Retrato en movimiento, antología preparada por el autor de su trabajo literario. Realizó su doctorado en Psicología en Yale University. Es Profesor Titular de la Escuela de Psicología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, donde realiza investigación sobre psicología de la escritura y psicología de la creatividad.
El crītico Roberto Onell indicó: “Preiss integra el conjunto de poetas, jóvenes en los 90, que comenzaron con una poesía vuelta sobre sí misma, con renovado lirismo y reflexión. Así, la tópica dictadura chilena quedó relativamente suspendida ante esta reconcentración del discurrir poético. En un diálogo expectante, este gesto era una indagación en las fuentes, a ver si era posible -significativo- seguir haciendo poesía. Y precisamente esta discontinuidad en la abominación dio señal de la gravedad de las lesiones autoritarias; montar la máquina del contraataque hubiera evidenciado una agilidad aún en pie. Soslayar Señor del vértigo en la reinauguración democrática es esquivar un horizonte donde comprender ya no solo el terror nacionalsocialista, sino todo el humano sufrimiento ocasionado por manos humanas. Señor del vértigo es el luto que nos abisma con nosotros mismos.” (Revista de Libros de El Mercurio, Santiago, 3 de Enero de 2016)
David Preiss (Santiago, 1973) is the author of the book of poems Señor del vértigo, Y demora el alba, Oscuro mediodía y Bocado as well as Retrato en movimiento, an anthology prepared by the author of his literary work. He completed his PhD. in Psychology at Yale University. He is a Full Professor in the School of Psychology of the Pontíficia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he conducts research on the psychology of writing and the psychology of creativity.
According to the critic Roberto Onell, “Preiss is one of the group of poets, young people in the 90s, who began with a poetry turned on itself, with renewed lyricism and reflection.” Thus, the topic of the Chilean dictatorship was, for the most part, suspended. In the face of this reconcentration of the poetic discourse, in an expectant dialogue, this effort was an inquiry into the sources, to see if it was possible -significant- to continue making poetry, and precisely this discontinuity with the abominations committed by the government signaled the seriousness of the authoritarian injustices; a counterattack would have shown an ongoing poetic flexibility. To ignore Lord of the vertigo as part of the democratic reopening is to avoid a horizon in which to understand not only the National Socialist terror, but all the human suffering caused by human hands Lord of the vertigo is the mourning the abysms within ourselves (Book Review of El Mercurio, Santiago, January 3, 2016)
Poesía de David Preiss/Poetry by David Preiss
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SABÁTICA
¿En qué jornada el día se renueva?
¿Qué día cae el día sobre ti?
El tiempo ha de pasar: palabras
que los seres queridos dejan en la mesa:
pan, sal, vino.
El fuego acerca a Dios; aleja al forastero.
El Shabat ocupa las esquinas del altar.
-Tú, ¿por qué no te arrimas a recoger tu bendición?
Inclinan la cabeza.
Caen ante su fantástico dominio.
Aquel que teme a Dios no hace apuestas sobre el tiempo.
Nada le faltará, salvo la memoria.
Ésta es la mesa de los justos, donde nunca falta el alimento.
Las oraciones han caído ante la mesa.
Él toma una solamente.
Masca en el silencio.
__________________________________________
SHABBAT
On which working day does the day renew itself?
Which day does the day fall onto you?
Time has to pass: words
in which the loved ones leave on the table:
Bread, salt, wine.
Fire near God; the stranger moves away.
Shabbat occupies the corners of the altar.
“You, why don’t you move nearer to receive your blessing?”
They bow their heads.
They fall before His formidable dominion.
That one who fears God doesn’t make wagers on time.
Nothing will be lacking to him, except memory.
This is the table of the just, where food is ever present.
The prayers have fallen on the table.
HE takes only one.
HE chews in silence.
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JERUSALEM
Nunca se desvistió Jerusalem, siempre visité los brazos de sus
calles,
arrugadas,
elementales,
hundidas en la piedra;
siempre estuve en sus santuarios y bebí del sabor profano
de sus vísperas, siempre uní mi licor a sus mujeres,
nunca dejé atrás a sus umbrales, no partieron mis abuelos
ni los abuelos de mis abuelos en el largo clavel de las
generaciones.
He cruzado el mundo sin dejar Jerusalem.
He desperdigado mi alma como una semilla bondadosa.
He amado en tierra extraña.
He besado mis labios con un carbón encendido
y todavía no enmudezco.
Mis pies se quedaron en la piedra y mis pasos rodean el mundo
como a una laguna sin saciar su sed.
Volverán a Jerusalem sin haber salido de sus puertas:
no tendrá luto mi corazón: serafines y centinelas celan su alegría
como a un mineral sagrado y escondido.
Sólo el mar implorará por visitar Jerusalem.
Por tocar la fragancia de su piedra.
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JERUSALEM
Jerusalem never unclothed, I always visited the arms of its
streets,
wrinkled,
elemental,
sunken in the rock;
I was always in its sanctuaries and I drank of the profound flavor
of its yesterdays; I always shared my liquor with its women,
I never left behind its thresholds, my grandparents or the
grandparents did not leave the long carnation of the generations.
I have crossed the world without leaving Jerusalem behind.
I have scattered my soul as a good-natured seed.
I have loved in strange land.
I have kissed my lips on a burning coal
and I am still mute.
My feet stayed on the rock, and my steps circle the world
as at a pond without satiating their thirst.
They will return to Jerusalem without having left its doors:
there will be no grief in my heart: angels and sentinels ensure its joy,
like sacred and hidden mineral.
Only the sea will beg to visit Jerusalem.
To touch the fragrance of its stone.
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Y AL POLVO VOLVERÁS
(Sobre Majdanek)
¿Qué hay, Dios mío, más allá de la chimenea que se estira?
¿Homero al decir de Sócrates?
¿El polvo para darle a mis huesos trocados en ceniza?
¿Dios como la bruma?
Devuelve mi polvo, oh Señor del polvo,
antes del intacto blanco de mis huesos,
no quiero rasgarme en las ramas de Polonia,
no quiero este vértigo sin tumba, sin rocío
allá sobre la tierra,
no quiero desafiar al eco y crecer en su distancia hasta vaciarme,
oh Señor del vértigo,
amenazo con anudarme en una estrella, demorar la llegada de la
tarde
y persistir en plena luz del día tristemente intacto.
¿Quién pudiera recoger el crepúsculo de mis pies?
__________________________________
AND YOU WILL RETURN TO DUST
(About Majdanek)
What’s that, dear God, beyond the chimney that shoots up?
Homer on speaking to Socrates?
The dust to give to it my truncated bones in ash?
God as the haze?
Return my dust, oh Lord of dust
before the intact whiteness of my bones,
I don’t want to scratch myself on the branches of Poland.
I don’t want this vertigo without a tomb, without dew
on the ground.
I don’t want to challenge the echo and to grow in its distance until I am empty
Oh, Lord of vértigo,
I threaten to tie myself to a star, delay the arrival of the
evening
and persist in the full light of day sadly intact.
