ROETHKE, Theodore. O forró do papai

A pinga no bafo dava
Pr’um menino ficar tonto,
Mas com força eu segurava;
O forró fora do ponto.

Dançar, até as panelas
Pularem da prateleira;
Refletida em todas elas,
Minha mãe de cara feia.

A mão travada em meu pulso;
O nó do dedo ferido.
E pra cada passo avulso
Vinha a fivela no ouvido.

Marcava em minha moleira
O passo com palma suja
Até me largar na esteira
Sem que eu largasse da blusa.



***

MY PAPA’S WALTZ


The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.


______
ROETHKE, Theodore. My papa’s waltz. In: ______. The collected poems of Theodore Roethke. New York: Anchor Books, 1991. p. 43.