Monologue of a Shadow

I am a Shadow! I come from other eras,
from the cosmopolitan world of the monerans.
A polyp of hidden recesses,
a larva of telluric chaos, I come
from the darkness of the cosmic secret,
from the substance of all substances!

The symbiosis of things keeps me in balance.
Within my unknown, ample monad vibrates
the soul of all rotary motion.
And from me, all at once, arise
the health of subterranean forces
and the sickness of illusory beings!

Hovering above the roofs of the world,
I do not know the accident called Senectus—
that learned bloodsucker
which, without using a single virus,
produces the yellowing of papyrus
and the anatomical misery of the wrinkle!

In social existence, I possess a weapon:
the metaphysics of Abhidharma.
And I carry, without Brahmanic shears,
like the back of a passive beast of burden,
the subjective solidarity
of every suffering species.

With a little everyday spit
I show my disgust for Human Nature.
Rot serves me as a Gospel...
I love dung, the foul refuse of street stalls,
and the lower animal that howls in the woods
is certainly my elder brother!

Translation: Wylks Weindhardt e Peter O’Neill

Author: Augusto dos Anjos