Monday, October 5, 2009

Princes all of them

It´s been a tough week. I´ll just share my humble and imperfect, thus free, translation of Poema em Linha Reta by Álvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa):

Poem in a Straight Line

I´ve never met anyone who´d been beaten up.
All my acquaintances have been champions in everything.
And I, so often crude, so often filthy, so often vile,
I, so often inarguably parasite,
Unforgivably dirty.
I, who so often haven´t taken the time to take a bath,
I, who have so often been ridiculous, absurd,
Who have publicly stumbled my feet in the rugs of etiquette,
Who have been grotesque, despicable, submissive and arrogant,
Who have been humiliated and remained quiet,
And was ridiculed when did not remain quiet;
I, who have been the laughing stock of the chambermaids,
I, who have noticed the eye winks of the delivery boys,
I, who have caused financial embarrassments, borrowing without paying,
I, who, instead of taking a punch, have crouched
Away from the possibility of the punch;
I, who have been anxious over ridiculous, small things,
I see I have no peer in this world.
Everybody I know and talks to me
Has never had a ridiculous moment, has never been scolded,
Has never been but a prince - princes all of them - in life...
I wish I could hear human voices
That would not confess sins, but flaws;
That would not report their violent actions, but their coward reactions!
No, they are all the Ideal, as they tell me.
Is there anyone in this immense world that would confess having been vile once?
Oh princes, my brothers and sisters
Damn it, I am fed up with these demigods!
Where are the real people in this world?
Is it only me that is vile and wrong in this land?
Their husbands and wives may have not loved them,
They may have been betrayed - but never ridiculous!
And I, who have been ridiculous without having been betrayed,
How can I address my superiors without hesitating?
I, who have been vile, literally vile,
Vile in the despicable and infamous sense of vileness.

6 comments:

Vincent said...

This is a beautifully flowing translation, of a poem I find utterly admirable. The irony is that Pessoa himself, whom I discovered only recently, is the writer who more than anyone makes me feel not exactly vile, but hopelessly mediocre as a writer. He gets under the skin and makes me feel that I am him; that he is my appointed spokesperson.

Encountering Pessoa, I have wanted to learn Portuguese! But I have as it were too much respect for the complexity and cultural associations of a language to imagine that I can find my way in its obscurer paths and byways. I shall be dependent on others to be my translator, like a blind man tapping with a stick.

Unknown said...

Hi Vincent, maybe the reason Pessoa created many "heterônimos", different personalities, for his writings was because he felt universal.
As for Portuguese, well, you might be surprised at how much you can learn and become independent in the language, especially if you´ve already had some contact with another Neolatin language, like Spanish, Italian, French etc.
There´s another Portuguese author that you might enjoy reading as well called Miguel Torga. He has a very powerful short story called Vicente (Vincent):-)
Here´s a link:
http://boticelli.no.sapo.pt/miguel_torga.htm

Vincent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vincent said...

Thanks for the encouragement! I am already advanced in French & Italian literature, (or I was many decades when I took my languages degree).

It is indeed Pessoa's universality which attracts me. I shall be blogging about him again soon, I think.

DIPR said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DIPR said...

Good but not enough. You changed Pessoa's style by writing in the plural what should be in the singular. You should have written "Me" instead of "I" and you shouldn't have used different words that you thought would be the same in English. Before destroying a masterpiece, you should consult a literary professional, or at least try to understand Fernando Pessoa's work.