Brutal attraction, body of the stone,
how can I surrender to delight if through my pleasure
there gallops a congenital atrocity?

When we arrived in Manaus on the Rio Negro’s
broad, green and shady mirror, we were greeted
by the dome of the opera theatre, like an earthly sun,
bred to the heartbeat of an indigenous city.

To the sound of gunfire, discos and cabarets,
the oppressive and gilded marble
rises in welcome over bones
steeped in rubber and caipirinhas.

L´ÒPERA DE L´AMAZONES
Atracció brutal, cos de la pedra,
compuclliurar-me al goig si entre el plaer
hi galopa una atrocitatcongènita?

En arribar a Manaus sobre l´amplemirall
verd i ombríu del riuNegre, com un sol terrenal,
engendrada al batecd´unaciutat indígena
ens saluda la cúpula del teatre de l´òpera.

Ambdispars de pistola, discos i cabarets,
l´opressiómarmòria i daurada
s´elevaacollidora sobre unsossos
impregnats de cautxúicaipirinyes.

Tònia Passola is a Catalan poet born in the heart of Barcelona.  She holds a degree in History of Art at the University Autonoma of Barcelona and is professor of Catalan language and Literature at a Secondary College. Her poetry has been included in anthologies and magazines in French, Italian, Romanian, English, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Macedonian, Albanian, Arabic and Chinese. In 2014 she was honored with the award " Nënë Tereze” in the city of Gjakova, Republic of Kosovo; in 2015 with the Alexander the Great medal in the Greek island of Salamina; in 2017 she received a Literary  Award for her “Special poetic creativity” in the International Poetry Festival “Ditët e Naimit” of Tetova, Macedonia.