Poema de Amor–Gilka Machado

   Poema de Amor

     E não podes saber do meu gozo violento
   quando me fico, assim, neste ermo, toda nua,
   completamente exposta à volúpia do vento!

   Gilka Machado, 1917

 

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Poem of Love

And you cannot know of my violent pleasure
when I stand naked in this deserted place,
completely exposed to the Voluptuous Wind!

Trans. The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature: Brazilian literature

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Gilka Machado, a Brazilian poet from the early twentieth century, is remembered as one of the very few females able to penetrate the male-dominated literary world of Brazil. Most notable in her work is its explicit eroticism, the bold message of female desire that confronted a society that chose to deny its existence. While this is not the entire poem (it is only the last stanza of Machado’s Poema de Amor), I feel that there is enough in its three lines to not only represent Machado’s style as a poet, but also to inspire a stop-motion film.

The above lines anthropomorphize “nature,” rendering elements such as the wind sensual (almost sexual) beings. There are two paths I think it would be interesting to take in their visual interpretation. The first would be to exclude all human forms. Without “people,” elements such as the earth, sky, wind and water can take on stronger personalities. Although wind is the central element in Machado’s stanza, I would like to focus on either water or mud… maybe even an interaction between the two.  My second idea is to create a piece entirely dedicated to a single dancer. I think I would want her to dance with fire.