In a corner of the room, my body ran its factory of relationsDecisions are not self-explanatory, they resist the questionnaire of pleasure and are forced to ignore consequences of causes, such as movement and encounterCupped hands rise to the face as it moves to them and go not astrayalong the way Breathing through the mouth, notime to waste between the oxygenation of the brain and the environment in general, he spoke loudly and precisely:the sudden tension that runs along the line from the mouth of the fish to the hand of the fisherman, hook: bait, fishBut this image finds no equivalence in my organism and I look again to my feet Alone and empty as one gives birth as one ejaculates empty and aloneand I calmed down only by repeating duration duration movement durationin a progressive emptying of the lungs and immediate refillingThere is no transition subtler than one forgotten at midnightand between epidermismuscle dermisbone allawaita calibrationof the spectaclesof the worldput out the light oh knights oh night ridersBreviary of secretions in the morning:§ the usual salivationeven amidrecent dehydration§ habitual ejaculationbefore breakfast§ normal bleedinginto the bathroom sinkcolors my moutha feeling of freshness and fear Breviário de secreçõesA um canto do quarto, meu corpo operava sua fábrica de relaçõesDecisões não são autoexplicativas, resistem ao questionário do prazer e são obrigadas a ignorar consequências de causas, como movimento e encontroAs mãos em concha erguem-se ao rosto ao mesmo tempo que este dirige-se a elas sem que se percamno caminho Respirando pela boca, semtempo a perder entre a oxigenação do próprio cérebro e a do ambiente em geral, ele falou alto e preciso:o teso súbito que percorre a linha da boca do peixe à mão do pescador, anzol: isca, peixeMas esta imagem não encontra equivalência em meu organismo e volto a olhar meus pés Sozinho e vazio como quem acaba de parir como quem acaba de ejacular vazio e sozinhoe só me acalmei ao repetir duração duração duração movimentoO esvaziamento progressivo dos pulmões e recomeçar em seguidaNão há transição mais sutil que a esquecida à meia-noitee entre epidermederme músculoosso esperamtodosuma gradaçãodos espetáculosdo mundoapague a luz cavaleiro digo cavalheiroBreviário das secreções da manhã:§ salivação comum mesmoem meio àdesidratação recente§ ejaculação de hábitoantes do desjejum§ sangramento normalà pia do banheirocolore-me a bocasensação de frescor e medo
Breviary of Secretions
Feature Date
Series
- Translation
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“Breviary of Secretions” from FIRST EPISTLE TO THE AMPHIBIANS: by Ricardo Domeneck.
Published by World Poetry on April 29, 2026.
English Copyright © 2026 by Chris Daniels
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Ricardo Domeneck (Brazil, 1977), poet and performer, has published nine collections of poetry and two collections of prose in Brazil. He studied philosophy at the University of São Paulo. His work has been translated and published in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and the US. He has collaborated with Brazilian and German musicians such as Tetine, Lea Porcelain, Nelson Bell, and Francisco Bley. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
In the first selected volume of Ricardo Domeneck's work to appear in English, the acclaimed Brazilian poet constructs a hyperbolic spiral of artifice, rage, and tenderness.
A consummately international poet, Domeneck centers the body “in all its moisture and all its fluids,” while never settling on a master style. Writing with tenderness and anger about earthly experience, friendship, love, and nature, and reacting against the previous generation’s anti-lyrical, impersonal poesia de invenção, Domeneck introduced a dense corporeal lyricism salted with camp at its high and low limits into contemporary Brazilian experimental poetry. Chris Daniels’s translation draws from more than two decades of the poet’s work.
“Ricardo Domeneck’s sensual erudition allows his poems to document both how ‘lucidity lights the way / to the imaginary’ and how ‘the flesh remembers, / and the flesh reminds.’ This savvily edited selected situates his Brazilian Portuguese in a transnational, translingual network of gay predecessor poets that includes Cavafy, Pasolini, and O’Hara. In Chris Daniels’ nimble, sensitive translations, Domeneck appears in English as a masterful performer whose use of form, style, tone, and allusion transforms literature into costume. Business casual and Baroque, sincere and Camp, in persona and in flagrante delicto, his wit’s always ready: ‘When the barbarians arrive, / they’ll find me in bed.”
— Brian Teare
“Ricardo Domeneck's extraordinary selected poems attends to the familiar (and funny!) surface of daily life—French cigarettes and a lover's eyelashes and dingy apartments and absent fathers—while plunging into the unknown, into silence, into despair, where language doesn’t so much fail as it rediscovers itself. That's beauty. Domeneck’s poetry speaks ‘loudly and precisely,’ without equivalence. I’m always listening.”
—Andrew Durbin
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
