In her analysis of “last-word poems” in Dying Modern: A Meditation on Elegy, Diana Fuss delves into the profound impact of final utterances on poetry, where the culmination of words signifies the cessation of dialogue or dispute. Hilda Hilst, the Brazilian poet, delves into this realm with her 1980 work Of Death. Minimal Odes, emphasizing the interplay between conclusion and future, presence and legacy. Through the meticulous translation by Laura Cesarco Eglin, Of Death. Minimal Odes opens a gateway to Hilst’s contemplation on endurance, longing, obliteration, and tangibility.
Of Death. Minimal Odes is divided into four sections. The first, “Watercolors,” features six pairs of poems and paintings that juxtapose text and visuals surrealistically. The central section of the book, titled similarly to the collection, is followed by two shorter series: “Time—Death” and “In Front of You. In Vanity.” At the core are the forty “Minimal Odes,” concise yet abundant in their lyrical content.
The 2019 Best Translated Book Award committee acknowledged this contradiction, describing the poems as captivating beyond measure, transcending any scars inflicted. The language, both complex and straightforward, unveils a new facet of the Brazilian poet’s work. While the praise implies a tinge of critique, suggesting excess and deficiency in Hilst’s verses, it is more fitting to view the “Minimal Odes” as a challenge to conventional genre boundaries. By enfolding minimalist lyrics within the grandeur of an ode, Hilst prompts a dialogue with death that intricately involves the speaker, the reader, and the silent entity of death.
This direct address to death is a recurrent theme in poetry, yet Hilst’s rendition sets her apart by grounding death in palpable reality. Death assumes various forms in her verses, embodying a “little mare,” a “child on a shard of china,” or a “lilac and mauve fish,” infusing the narrative with elements of queer desire and sensuality. The speaker’s encounter with death unfolds in Ode II, where death is personified as feminine, and the speaker yearns for a tangible understanding. This pursuit of knowledge culminates in a striking moment where the speaker envisions a transformation, not subsumed by death but attaining full corporeality.
In Ode V, the dynamic between the speaker and death unfurls intricacies of power and agency, oscillating between control and submission. The interplay of language veers between the anticipatory and the assertive, evoking a sense of intimacy and challenge.
Moreover, Of Death. Minimal Odes distorts temporal boundaries, creating a quasi-pre-posthumous queer chronology. The blend of futurity and immediacy in Hilst’s odes challenges conventional notions of presence in poetry, bringing death into the very fabric of the present moment.
Laura Cesarco Eglin’s translation skillfully captures the essence of Hilst’s evocative language, navigating the intricacies of rhyme and emotion from Portuguese to English. Through this translation, the poems maintain their dense, intimate quality, offering readers a glimpse into the profound introspection of “morte minha,” my death.
As Diana Fuss suggests in Dying Modern, writing can mirror the experience of dying, a cyclical confrontation with one’s ephemeral nature. Yet, in Hilst’s poems, confronting death head-on elevates the poetic act to a realm of perpetual renewal, where the poet and her mortality coexist, vibrant and united in the human sphere.
