Aula de anatomia do Professor Karl Breuing/Professor Karl Breuing’s Anatomy Class, by ​João Luís Barreto Guimarães, translated by Calvin Olsen

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, by Rembrandt (Netherlands) 1632

Aula de anatomia do Professor Karl Breuing 

Envolta em panos cirúrgicos (um
cheiro intenso a formol) esta mulher desconhece
o que lhe fazem ao corpo.
«Mrs. Riley are you there? May I
call you Mrs. Riley?»
Um cadáver não responde. Nem este
nem nenhum dos outros que
doados à ciência vão permitir avançar de
onde esta vida parou. «Are you still there Mrs. Riley?
May we call you Mrs. Riley?»
Mrs. Riley já não está. Para trás
deixou o corpo à guilda de cirurgiões (não
para dissecar um membro como usava
Dr. Tulp) antes
recriar o seio que a doença levou. No
teatro anatómico da Universidade de Bristol
a memória dos mortos está na atenção
dos vivos. «Are you still there Mrs. Riley?
Shall I call you Mrs. Riley?»
Num instante Mrs. Riley estará
de novo completa –
nas mãos do Professor Breuing será como
repetir Deus.

**
​
​Professor Karl Breuing’s Anatomy Class

Enveloped in surgical sheets (an
intense smell of formalin) this woman does not know
what they do to her body.
Mrs. Riley are you there? May I
call you Mrs. Riley?
A cadaver holds its peace. Neither she
nor any of the others 
donated to science will permit any progress past
the end of this life. Are you still there Mrs. Riley?
May we call you Mrs. Riley?
Mrs. Riley is not home. She left
her body behind for the Surgeons Guild (not
for limb dissection as Dr. Tulp 
had hoped) to
rebuild the breast taken by illness. In
the anatomical theater at the University of Bristol
the memory of the dead is tended to
by the living. Are you still there Mrs. Riley?
Shall I call you Mrs. Riley?
In a moment Mrs. Riley will be
once again complete –
in the hands of Professor Breuing it’s like
replicating God.

​João Luís Barreto Guimarães, translated from the Portuguese by Calvin Olsen

João Luís Barreto Guimarães was born in Porto, Portugal (June 1967) where he graduated in Medicine. He is a Poet (as well as a Breast Reconstructive Surgeon). As a writer, he is the author of 10 poetry books since 1989, collected twice, including his first 7 books in “Collected Poetry” (“Poesia Reunida”, Lisbon, Quetzal, 2011) and the subsequent “You Are Here” (“Você está Aqui”, Lisbon, Quetzal, 2013), publish also in Italy, “Mediterranean” (“Mediterrâneo”, Lisbon, Quetzal, 2016) chosen as National Award António Ramos Rosa 2017 for best poetry book edited in Portugal in 2016 and published in Spain, France, Poland and Italy where it was finalist of Camaiori International Prize 2018, “Nomad” (“Nómada”, Lisbon, Quetzal, 2018) chosen as Best Poetry Book Bertrand Award 2018, publish also in Italy, and the 100 poem anthology “Time Advances by Syllables” (“O Tempo avança por Sílabas”, Lisbon, Quetzal, 2019), publish also in Croatia. Forthcomming is “Movement” (“Movimento”, Lisbon, Quetzal, September 2020). His poems have been published in anthologies and literary magazines in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and United States. He has read at literary Festivals in Spain, México, Croatia, Germany and USA, as well as in Serbia, via video. His poems and their translations to English have appeared in: World Literature Today, Poetry London, Asymptote, The Banyan Review, Salamander, Anima, Tupelo Quarterly, The London Magazine, The Columbia Review, The Chaattahoochee Review, The Cortland Review, Bellevue Literary Review, International Poetry Review, The Common, Ezra Translation, Anomaly, LIT Magazine and World Without Borders.


Calvin Olsen is an internationally-published poet and translator. He holds an MA in English & Comparative Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing. He has taught English, composition, creative writing, and comparative literature at Boston University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Bunker Hill Community College. Calvin Olsen’s poetry and translations have recently appeared in Poet Lore, The National Poetry Review, AGNI, Asymptote, and The Cortland Review, among others. He lives in North Carolina, USA, where he is a doctoral student and the poetry editor for The Carolina Quarterly. More of his work can be found at calvin-olsen.com.