Chapter 9 Summary

The Translations chosen by Bishop are ones that celebrate many of the poet's colleagues and mentors. Many of the poems in Translations deal with death. In the first poem by Manuel Bandeira, Bishop translates Bandeira would like the last poem to be gentle and simple, ardent and beautiful, pure and full of passion like those who commit suicide with no explanation.

The second Bandeira poem is Brazilian Tragedy, which details the story of a man who rescues a prostitute from a horrible life. The woman is diseased and full of decay, dressed in rags, and living in squalor. The man saves her from that life and cares for her in the best way he can. As soon as the woman is well and clean, she takes a lover. The man who rescued her does so again and each time a new lover appears...