Salome after the Crime

POETRY Ana Luísa Amaral was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1956. She has written poetry, plays, children’s books, and a novel. The recipient of several national and international awards, Amaral’s works have been translated into some twenty languages. She has two books in English: The Art of Being a Tiger (2016) and What’s in a Name (2019). Margaret Jull Costa has translated such Portuguese and Spanish authors as Eça de Queiroz, José Saramago, Javier Marías, and Sophia de Mello Breyner. Twice the recipient of the Portuguese Translation Prize, in 2014 she received the Order of the British Empire for service to literature. Salome after the Crime by Ana Luísa Amaral How often I saw you and felt surprised to be looking at you. Feeling the temptation to spy on you and the desire to love what I did not have How was I to know from the naked dreams that assailed me that I was no landscape for your eyes? Lust, they say, should only exist alongside love and this was a vast and lustful crime: but I wanted you defenceless a banquet your lips my banquet How often I found myself thinking about my crime and about the history of men judging me! But what I saw on that crime-laden platter, were the eyes with which you looked at me (a me finally made landscape) and the lust that always exists in love Translation from the Portuguese By Margaret Jull Costa WORLDLIT.ORG 53 SALOMÉ BY JUANA ROMANI / MUSÉE D'ORSAY / PUBLIC DOMAIN

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