Bibliophile by Thaís Fernandes

Being in good company

with ancient books

next to me.

Loving their classic musty scent

that wafts from each page

I read.

Looking back,

a bookshelf full of questions;

pieces of wisdom,

social quandaries,

many lessons.

Through an opened book,

the whisperings of words

are so compelling,

where I can find

their meaning.

And the voices of human

beings, by reading

manuscripts,

written all

in Latin.

Thaís Fernandes is a native Brazilian, language instructor, translator, and a research enthusiast based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her poetry and literary translations have appeared in different online journals, including with the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun, Meta/Phor(e)/Play, Merak Magazine, Tuck Magazine, Zunái—Revista de Poesia e Debates, and Acácia—Revista de Tradução. Recent publications include translations of C. S. Lewis, Jonathan Swift, and forthcoming Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert Louis Stevenson. Current projects include unpublished translations into Portuguese of poems by William Faulkner. Email: thaisf.santos@bol.com.br