"The Curse of Kane" by Unknown Writer (in English)

art by Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia. Four Color #1289 - Dell, March 1962.

"The Ass and the Lapdog" by Aesop (translated into English)

  A Farmer one day came to the stables to see to his beasts of burden: among them was his favourite Ass, that was always well fed and often carried his master. With the Farmer came his Lapdog, who danced about and licked his hand and frisked about as happy as could be. The Farmer felt in his pocket, gave the Lapdog some dainty food, and sat down while he gave his orders to his servants. The Lapdog jumped into his master's lap, and lay there blinking while the Farmer stroked his ears. The Ass, seeing this, broke loose from his halter and commenced prancing about in imitation of the Lapdog. The Farmer could not hold his sides with laughter, so the Ass went up to him, and putting his feet upon the Farmer's shoulder attempted to climb into his lap. The Farmer's servants rushed up with sticks and pitchforks and soon taught the Ass that

    Clumsy jesting is no joke.

"Sinos" by Alphonsus de Guimaraens (in Portuguese)

Escuto ainda a voz dos campanários
Entre aromas de rosas e açucenas,
Vozes de sinos pelos santuários,
Enchendo as grandes vastidões serenas...

E seguindo outros seres solitários
Retomo velhos quadros, velhas cenas,
Rezando as orações dos Septenários,
Dos Ofícios, dos Terços, das Novenas...

A morte que nos salva não nos priva
De ir ao pé de um sacrário abandonado
Chorar, como inda faz a alma cativa!

Ó sinos dolorosos e plangentes,
Cantai como cantáveis no passado,
Dizendo a mesma fé que salva os crentes!

"Pequeno Gesto" and "Alma Escura" by Cecília Meireles (in Portuguese)

Pequeno Gesto

Basta-me um pequeno gesto,
feito de longe e de leve,
para que venhas comigo
e eu para sempre te leve...





Alma Escura

E minha alma, sem luz nem tenda,
passa errante, na noite má,
à procura de quem me entenda
e de quem me consolará...

"Camma" by Oscar Wilde (in English)

As one who poring on a Grecian urn
Scans the fair shapes some Attic hand hath made,
God with slim goddess, goodly man with maid,
And for their beauty's sake is loth to turn
And face the obvious day, must I not yearn
For many a secret moon of indolent bliss,
When in the midmost shrine of Artemis
I see thee standing, antique-limbed, and stern?

And yet--methinks I'd rather see thee play
That serpent of old Nile, whose witchery
Made Emperors drunken,--come, great Egypt, shake
Our stage with all thy mimic pageants! Nay,
I am grown sick of unreal passions, make
The world thine Actium, me thine Antony!

Untitled Poem by José Thiesen (in Portuguese)

Posso duvidar que lá fora
Há um sol brilhante,
Posso duvidar do
Ar que respiro,
Posso até duvidar das
Grades que me prendem,
Mas não posso duvidar
Do amor que sinto por ti.
Toma, pois, esta tela,
Como símbolo de que, do
Fundo de onde estou,
Meus pensamentos são
Todos para ti, são teus e
Teus somente.

(The prisoner G. Ávila from the Central Prison of Porto Alegre had asked me to make a portrait of his wife and write a dedicatory to her on 27th October 1997.)

"The Curse of the Crystal!" by Unknown Writer (in English)

art by Sheldon Moldoff - This Magazine is Haunted #6 - Fawcett, August 1952.