ENEM 2020 — Questão 3

No Madonna and Child could touch Her tenderness for a son She soon would have to forget. . . . The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea¹, Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs² And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps Behind blown-empty bellies³. Other mothers there Had long ceased to care, but not this one: She held a ghost-smile between her teeth, And in her eyes the memory Of a mother’s pride. . . . She had bathed him And rubbed him down with bare palms⁴. She took from their bundle of possessions A broken comb and combed The rust-colored hair⁵ left on his skull And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part it. In their former life this was perhaps A little daily act of no consequence Before his breakfast and school; now she did it Like putting flowers on a tiny grave⁶.

1. 1“The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea” — Olfato: o cheiro do campo de refugiados.
2. 2“washed-out ribs” — Visão: costelas à mostra, fome.
3. 3“blown-empty bellies” — Visão: barrigas inchadas de desnutrição.
4. 4“rubbed him down with bare palms” — Tato: o cuidado da mãe.
5. 5“rust-colored hair” — Visão: cabelo descolorido pela fome.
6. 6“Like putting flowers on a tiny grave” — Símile, não fato: não há visita a túmulo.