James Tate - Quando os nómadas chegam descendo o monte

Quando os nómadas chegam descendo o monte

nos camelos de palha

o anjo da alegria rasteja pelo imenso corredor

e os vegetais frescos na carroça abandonada

desabrocham em chamas azuis

velhos junto à fonte erguem-se

e dizem-se adeus

o brilho do sol é enxaguado na tinta mais negra

cobras dormem deitadas de costas

à volta do relógio de sol dourado

a noite enorme esconde-se nas pupilas do contador de histórias

e o vento é dividido

por uma agulha bem colocada

quando os nómadas chegam descendo o monte

com a sua linguagem invisível.

  Original:

  When The Nomads Come Over the Hill

 

When the nomads come over the hill

on the wheatstraw camels

the angel of joy crawls down a long hallway

and the green vegetables in the abandoned cart

pour into blue flames

old men by the fountain rise

and bid one another adieu

the bright sun is rinsed in blackest ink

snakes sleep on their backs

around the golden sundial

giant night hides in the storyteller’s pupils

and the wind is divided

by a well-placed needle

when the nomads come over the hill

with their invisible language.

      The poem presents an ordinary domestic scene disrupted by the surreal arrival of nomads, blending humour with quiet dread. The nomads function as a metaphor for uncontrollable forces—death, time, strangers, or change—that invade personal life without warning. Tate’s plain, conversational tone contrasts with the absurd situation, heightening unease. The speaker’s compliance and politeness reveal human vulnerability and social conditioning, suggesting how people accommodate intrusion rather than resist it, exposing the fragility beneath everyday normalcy and modern emotional defences.