Presented in both English and Portuguese, this lyric poetry collection explores the "troublesome blessing and burden of being human" (Publishers Weekly). Love. Sex. Death. Meat. Traffic. Pets. In Cattle of the Lord, Rosa Alice Branco offers a stunning poetic vision at once sacred and profane, a rich evocation of daily life troubled by uneasy sacramentality. In a collection translated by Alexis Levitin and presented in both Portuguese and English, readers find themselves in a world turned upside down: darkly comic, sensual, and rife with contradiction. Here, liturgical words become lovers' invitations. Cows moo at the heavens. And chickens are lessons on the resurrection. Over the course of the collection, Branco's unorthodox-even blasphemous-religious sensibility yields something ultimately hopeful: a belief that the physical, the quotidian, and the animalistic are holy, too. Flesh, in all its meanings-the body of the other, caressed; the animals we abuse, and eat; the sacrificial offering of Christ-demands reverence. Writing at the boundaries of sense and mystification, combining sensuous lyrics and wit with theological interrogation, Branco breaks down what we think we know about religion, faith, and what it means to be human. "Lord, how much compassion will it take for you," her speaker cries, "To be godfather at the Sunday barbecue?" Praise for Cattle of the Lord "In Rosa Alice Branco, via the compelling translations of Alexis Levitin, we find a poet of immense spiritual, as well as intellectual, curiosity." -Nicky Beer "A wild and sneaky book, filled with intelligence, wit, and theological anxiety.... Marvelous, moving, and obsessive." -Kevin Prufer "Throughout Cattle of the Lord, speakers wield their futile agency to beseech an impassive Lord in the face of their mortality. The result is a raw, daring interrogation that demands both contemplation and confrontation. Limbed with lush language, provocative imagery, and sharp sentiment, Branco's world is beautiful. But, make no mistake, it is foremost a bier." -The Los Angeles Review

Rosa Alice Branco is the author of numerous collections of poems in her native Portuguese. In English, her work was featured in New European Poets (Graywolf Press, 2008) and has appeared in over thirty magazines. She lives in Porto, Portugal.

Alexis Levitin's thirty-two books in translation include Clarice Lispector's Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade's Forbidden Words. Recent publications include Tapestry of the Sun: An Anthology of Ecuadorian Poetry, cotranslated with Fernando Iturburu; Brazil: A Traveler's Literary Companion; and Blood of the Sun, by Brazil's Salgado Maranhao.

Contents

Tasks of the World
Silk Route of the Blood
Divine Caress
Rape and Run
The Dog That Had Me
Like a Log
Parable of the Talents
Paths That Lead Nowhere
Wounded Sabotage
Animals of the Earth
Prescriptions for the Soul
Laughter in the Grass
Day of the Dead
Exchange of Blood
Savings Bank
Water on Stone
The Vespas of Palermo
One Less
Only the Cats
More Is Less
Black and White
Sub Specie Aeternitatis
Proof of the Soul
Spotless Porcelain
Striptease: Cartagena
Beside the Window
To Each His Own
Decomposition of the Soul
The Soul in the Mouth of Animals
Noah's Ark
Go Forth and Multiply
Logic Could Be a Madeleine
Via Sacra
No Complaint Book
The Death of Angels

Acknowledgments