Here’s my translation of this Florbela Espanca soneto which I mentioned in passing in yesterday’s post. It’s quite easy to translate the words, but translating poetry usually makes it feel a bit leaden so I hope I don’t do it too much dirt. The main reason it caught my eye was the title of the song based on it: “Perdidamente”. It’s one of those words that’s really hard to translate on its own. How would you translate it_ It looks like it ought to be “lostly” but we don’t really have such a word in english. I suppose “hopelessly” or “desperately” are in the right area, but neither is quite the same. Sod it, I’m going to translate it as lostly and the Oxford English Dictionary can bloody sue me!
| Ser poeta é ser mais alto, é ser maior Do que os homens! Morder como quem beija! É ser mendigo e dar como quem seja Rei do Reino de Aquém e de Além Dor! É ter de mil desejos o esplendor E não saber sequer que se deseja! É ter cá dentro um astro que flameja, É ter garras e asas de condor! É ter fome, é ter sede de Infinito! Por elmo, as manhãs de oiro e cetim… É condensar o mundo num só grito! E é amar-te, assim, perdidamente… É seres alma e sangue e vida em mim E dizê-lo cantando a toda a gente! | To be a poet is to be taller, to be bigger Than men, to bite like one who kisses It is to be a beggar and give like one who is King of the Kingdom of Within and Beyond Pain It is to have the splendour of a thousand desires And not even to to know what one desires It’s to have in here a star that burns And to have the claws of a condor It’s to have an infinite hunger and thirst For a helmet, the mornings of gold and satin It is too condense the world into just one scream And it is to love you like this, lostly It is for you to be soul and blood and life in me And to say it, singing to everyone! |
Luso 