Quote (Translation): Hilda Hilst

"He was telluric and unique. He was dreaming. He dreamed of goodbyes and shadows. He dreamed of gods. He was cruel because he had always been desperate. He encountered a human-angel. So that they might live together, on Earth, forever, he cut off his wings. The other killed himself, plunging into the waters. I am still alive today. I am old. At night I drink a lot and look at the stars. Often, I write. Then I reconsider that one, the snowy breath, the desperation. I lie down. Austerely, I dream that I sow black beans and wings across a dark, sometimes mother-of-pearl, earth."

-- Copyright © by Hilda Hilst, from Letters from a Seducer (Cartas de um sedutor), originally published in 1991 by Editora Paulicéia, reprinted in 2001 by Globo Editora. Translation, copyright © by John Keene, 2013.