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“I loved you once: perhaps that love has yet
To die down thoroughly within my soul;
But let it not dismay you any longer;
I have no wish to cause you any sorrow.
I loved you wordlessly, without a hope,
By shyness tortured, or by jealousy.
I loved you with such tenderness and candor
And pray God grants you to be loved that way again.”

(Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin)

“Terror de te amar num sítio tão frágil como o mundo

Mal de te amar neste lugar de imperfeição
Onde tudo nos quebra e emudece
Onde tudo nos mente e nos separa.”

(Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, in Antologia)

“Amo a los pájaros perdidos
que vuelan desde el más allá
a confundirse con un cielo
que nunca más podre recuperar.

Vuelven de nuevo los recuerdos
las horas jóvenes que di
y desde el mar llega un fantasma
hecho de cosas que ame y perdí.

Todo fue un sueño
un sueño que perdimos
como perdimos
los pájaros y el mar.

Un sueño breve y antiguo
como el tiempo
que los espejos
no pueden reflejar.

Después busqué
perderte en tantas otras
y aquella otra
y todas eras vos.

Al fin logré reconocer
cuando un adiós es un adiós
la soledad me devoró y fuimos dos.

Vuelven los pájaros nocturnos
que vuelan ciegos sobre el mar;
la noche entera es un espejo
que me devuelve tu soledad.

Soy sólo un pajaro perdido
que vuelve desde el más allá
a confundirse con un cielo
que nunca más podre recuperar.”

(Astor Piazzolla, in Los pájaros perdidos)

“Cold on my narrow cot I lie
and in sorrow look
through my window-square of black:

figured in the midnight sky,
a mosaic of stars
diagrams the falling years,

while from the moon, my lover’s eye
chills me to death
with radiance of his frozen faith.

Once I wounded him with so
small a thorn
I never thought his flesh would burn

or that the heat within would grow
until he stood
incandescent as a god;

now there is nowhere I can go
to hide from him:
moon and sun reflect his flame.

In the morning all shall be
the same again:
stars pale before the angry dawn;

the gilded cock will turn for me
the rack of time
until the peak of noon has come

and by that glare, my love will see
how I am still
blazing in my golden hell.”

(Sylvia Plath)

PS: Read it in Swedish today while on the tram, and just had to look for the original.

“He loved her and she loved him
His kisses sucked out her whole past and future or tried to
He had no other appetite
She bit him she gnawed him she sucked
She wanted him complete inside her
Safe and Sure forever and ever
Their little cries fluttered  into the curtains

Her eyes wanted nothing to get away
Her looks nailed down his hands his wrists his elbows
He gripped her hard so that life
Should not drag her from that moment
He wanted all future to cease
He wanted to topple with his arms round her
Or everlasting or whatever there was
Read the rest of this entry »

“Em todas as ruas te encontro
Em todas as ruas te perco
conheço tão bem o teu corpo
sonhei tanto a tua figura
que é de olhos fechados que eu ando
a limitar a tua altura
e bebo a água e sorvo o ar
que te atravessou a cintura
tanto, tão perto, tão real
que o meu corpo se transfigura
e toca o seu próprio elemento
num corpo que já não é seu
num rio que desapareceu
onde um braço teu me procura

Em todas as ruas te encontro
Em todas as ruas te perco”

(Mário Cesariny, in Pena Capital)

“One grand boulevard with trees
with one grand cafe in sun
with strong black coffee in very small cups.

One not necessarily very beautiful
man or woman who loves you.

One fine day.”

(Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Beautiful face
That like a daisy opens its petals to the sun
So do you
Open your face to me as I turn the page.

Enchanting smile
Any man would be under your spell,
Oh, beauty of a magazine.

How many poems have been written to you?
How many Dantes have written to you, Beatrice?
To your obsessive illusion
To you manufacture fantasy.

But today I won’t make one more Cliché
And write this poem to you.
No, no more clichés.

This poem is dedicated to those women
Whose beauty is in their charm,
In their intelligence,
In their character,
Not on their fabricated looks.

This poem is to you women,
That like a Shahrazade wake up
Everyday with a new story to tell,
A story that sings for change
That hopes for battles:
Battles for the love of the united flesh
Battles for passions aroused by a new day
Battle for the neglected rights
Or just battles to survive one more night.

Yes, to you women in a world of pain
To you, bright star in this ever-spending universe
To you, fighter of a thousand-and-one fights
To you, friend of my heart.

From now on, my head won’t look down to a magazine
Rather, it will contemplate the night
And its bright stars,
And so, no more clichés.

(Octavio Paz)

“Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finnished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitans? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year’s War. Who
Else won it?

Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man?
Who paid the bill?

So many reports.
So many questions.”

(Bertolt Brecht)

filha
acredito que escondes um segredo nos teus olhos
quando sorrias para mim
tornava-se transparente
partilha sempre esse segredo comigo
lembra-te de mim e sorri