Ostinato

   To the desire,

to the sharp shadow

of desire,

I succumb.

   My twig  of coral,

my place in the sand,

my golden boat,

I succumb.

   My stone of dew,

my love,

my dagger,

I succumb.

   My burned out,
violated moon,

Take me, take me :

I succumb.

***********

Ostinato

   Ao desejo,

à sombra aguda

do desejo,

eu me abandono.

   Meu ramo de coral,

meu areal,

meu barco de oiro,

eu me abandono.

   Minha pedra de orvalho,

meu amor,

meu punhal,

eu me abandono.

   Minha lua queimada,

violada,

colhe-me, recolhe-me :

eu me abandono.

***********

We are green leaves in which birds
of loneliness and shadow sleep.
We are but leaves and their rustling.
Insecure, unable to be flower,
till a breeze perturbs and trembles us.
Therefore, by each gesture we make
each bird is transformed in another being.

***

Somos folhas verdes onde dormem
aves de sombra e solidão.
Somos só folhas e o seu rumor.
Inseguros, incapazes de ser flor,
até a brisa nos perturba e faz tremer.
Por isso a cada gesto que fazemos
cada ave se transforma noutro ser.

de: “O sal da língua”. Eugénio de Andrade

***
We zijn groene bladeren waarin vogels
slapen van schaduw en eenzaamheid.
We zijn slechts bladeren en hun geruis.
Onzeker, niet in staat om bloem te zijn,
tot de bries ons beroert en doet trillen.
Waardoor bij elk van onze bewegingen
iedere vogel een ander wezen wordt.

From: “O sal da língua - Het zout van de taal”, POINT Editions, 2006

Eugénio de Anrade, pseudonym for José Fontinhas, (1923 Póvoa da Atalaya – Porto 2005) has been a most productive poet. He wrote about thirty books of poetry, as well as essays and translated into Portuguese poetry collections of Federico García Lorca, Sappho, René Char, Ritsos and others, including the Antologia personal de la poesia portuguesa which had already six reprints. His excellent poems have been translated in many languages. The oeuvre of this poet, one of the most important modern poets after Fernando Pessoa, has been honoured with the most prestigious awards, including the Luis de Camoes Prize (2001), the most important poetry prize in Portugal. His poetry belongs to the generation after the Portuguese modernism and became one of the most personal, critical voices in the second half of the 20th century. His work offers the reader ethical, beautiful and well composed verses, which also takes interest in common daily life, as does the poetry of his colleagues Mario Cesariny, Antonio Ramos Rosas and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. POINT Editions published an anthology of his poems in 2006, bilingual Portuguese-Dutch entitled “O sal da língua” (The salt of the language).