CARLOS DRUMMOND DE ANDRADE: FOUR POEMS, WITH TRANSLATIONS – George Monteiro
<p> </p> <p>August 17, 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the disappearance of Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). One of the great twentieth-century poets, he published twenty-two books of poetry, beginning with Alguma Poesia, privately printed, in 1930. The texts of the four Drummond poems that appear below are taken from Nova Reunião (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio, 1983), which reprints the first nineteen volumes of his poetry. The accompanying translations are unpublished. </p> <p><img src="http://img.rtp.pt/icm//thumb/phpThumb.php?src=/images/b0/b06a49c11e70078c322da9bec31d957e&w=420&sx=0&sy=0&sw=292&sh=439&q=75 " /><br /><br /><br /><br />1.</p> <p>NO MEIO DO CAMINHO</p> <p>No meio do caminho tinha uma pedra<br />tinha uma pedra no meio do caminho<br />tinha uma pedra<br />no meio do caminho tinha uma pedra.</p> <p>Nunca me esquecerei desse acontecimento<br />na vida de minhas retinas tão fatigadas.<br />Nunca me esquecerei que no meio do caminho<br />Tinha uma pedra<br />Tinha uma pedra no meio do caminho<br />No meio do caminho tinha uma pedra.</p> <p><br />IN HE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD <br /><br />In the middle of the road there was a stone<br />there was a stone in the middle of the road<br />there was a stone<br />in the middle of the road there was a stone.</p> <p>Never shall I forget this incident<br />in the life of my over-tired retinas.<br />Never shall I forget that in the middle of the road<br />there was a stone<br />there was a stone in the middle of the road<br />in the middle of the road there was a stone.</p> <p>2.</p> <p>SENTIMENTO DO MUNDO</p> <p>Tenho apenas duas mãos<br />e o sentimento do mundo,<br />mas estou cheio de escravos,<br />minhas lembranças escorrem<br />e o corpo transige<br />na coinfluência do amor. </p> <p>Quando me levantar, o céu<br />estará morto e saqueado,<br />eu mesmo estarei morto,<br />morto meu desejo, morto<br />o pântano sem acordes. </p> <p>Os camaradas não disseram<br />que havia uma guerra<br />e era necessário<br />trazer fogo e álimento.<br />Sinto-me disperso,<br />anterior a fronteiras,<br />humildemente vos peço<br />que me perdoeis. </p> <p>Quando os corpos passarem,<br />eu ficarei sozinho<br />desfiando a recordação<br />do sineiro, da viúva e do microscopista<br />que habitavam a barraca<br />e não foram encontrados<br />ao amanhecer</p> <p>esse amanhecer<br />mais noite que a noite. </p> <p> </p> <p>A FEELING ABOUT THE WORLD</p> <p>I have two hands only <br />and a feeling for the world,<br />but I am teeming with slaves,<br />I am drenched in memories<br />and my body gives in before<br />the compromises of love.</p> <p>When I arise, the heavens<br />will be dead and plundered,<br />I myself will be dead,<br />dead will be desire, dead<br />the dissonant swamp.</p> <p>The fellows didn't say<br />there was a war on<br />and that it was necessary <br />to bring along fire and food.<br />I find myself at loose ends,<br />facing frontiers;<br />with humility I beg you<br />to forgive me.</p> <p>When the bodies have moved by,<br />I shall be alone<br />picking away at memories<br />of the ringer, the widow and the scientist<br />who inhabited the hut<br />and were not found<br />at daybreak</p> <p>that daybreak <br />more night than night.</p> <p>3.</p> <p>POEMA DA NECESSIDADE </p> <p>É preciso casar João,<br />é preciso suportar Antônio,<br />é preciso odiar Melquíades,<br />é preciso substituir nós todos.</p> <p>É preciso salvar o país,<br />é preciso crer em Deus.<br />é preciso pagar as dívidas,<br />é preciso comprar um rádio,<br />é preciso esquecer fulana.</p> <p>É preciso estudar volapuque,<br />é preciso estar sempre bêbedo,<br />é preciso ler Baudelaire,<br />é preciso colher as flores<br />de que rezam velhos autores.</p> <p>É preciso viver com os homens,<br />é preciso não assassiná-los,<br />é preciso ter mãos pálidas<br />e anunciar o fim do mundo.</p> <p> </p> <p>POEM OF NECESSITIES</p> <p>It's a necessity to get John married,<br />it's a necessity to tolerate Antonio,<br />it's a necessity to hate Melquíades,<br />it's a necessity to replace ourselves.</p> <p>It's a necessity to save the country,<br />it's a necessity to believe in God,<br />it's a necessity to pay the bills,<br />it's a necessity to buy a radio,<br />it's a necessity to forget so-and-so.</p> <p>It's a necessity to study volapuk,<br />it's a necessity to stay drunk,<br />it's a necessity to read Baudelaire,<br />it's a necessity to pick the flowers<br />praised by ancient writers.</p> <p>It's a necessity to live among men,<br />it's a necessity to avoid killing them,<br />it's a necessity to have clean hands <br />and herald the end of the world.</p> <p> </p> <p>4. </p> <p> FALTA POUCO</p> <p>Falta pouco para acabar<br />o uso desta mesa pela manhä<br />o hábito de chegar à janela da esquerda<br />aberta sobre enxugadores de roupa.<br />Falta pouco para acabar<br />a própria obrigaçäo de roupa<br />a obrigaçäo de fazer barba<br />a consulta a dicionários<br />a conversa com amigos pelo telefone.</p> <p>Falta pouco<br />para acabar o recebimento de cartas<br />as sempre adiadas respostas<br />o pagamento de impostos ao país, à cidade<br />as novidades sangrentas do mundo<br />a música dos intervalos.</p> <p>Falta pouco para o mundo acabar<br />sem explosäo<br />sem outro ruído<br />além do que escapa da garganta com falta de ar.</p> <p>Agora que ele estava principiando<br />a confessar<br />na bruma seu semblante e melodia.</p> <p> </p> <p>IT WON'T BE LONG</p> <p>It won't be long before my morning's daily stint<br />at this table comes to an end<br />this habit of walking to the window on the left<br />opening out over hanging clothes-lines.<br />It won't be long before there is an end<br />to the very need for clothing<br />the obligatory shave<br />looking up things in the dictionary<br />talking to friends on the phone.</p> <p>It won't be long<br />before there's an end to receiving letters<br />to their ever-put-off replies<br />to paying taxes to one's country, the city<br />to the blood-soaked news of the world<br />to the music of intervals.</p> <p>Not much longer before the world ends<br />without exploding<br />without noise<br />save for the sound the throat makes when breath fails.</p> <p>Just as through the mists<br />it was starting to body out<br />its countenance, its melody.</p> <p> </p> <p>Carlos Drummond de Andrade, "No Meio do Caminho," in <i>Alguma Poesia;</i> "Sentimento do Mundo," in <i>Sentimento do Mundo; </i>"Poema de Necessidade," in <i>Sentimento do Mundo;</i> "Falta Pouco," in <i>A falta que ama</i> (<i>Nova Reunião</i>[Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio, 1983], pp. 15, 64, 65-66, and 428, respectively.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>George Monteiro</strong> is Professor Emeritus of English and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University, and he continues as Adjunct Professor of Portuguese Studies at the same university. He served as Fulbright lecturer in American Literature in Brazil--Sao Paulo and Bahia--Ecuador and Argentina; and as Visiting Professor in UFMG in Belo Horizonte. In 2007 he served as Helio and Amelia Pedroso / Luso-American Foundation Professor of Portuguese, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Among his recent books are <em>Stephen Crane's Blue Badge of Courage</em>, <em>Fernando Pessoa and Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Literature, The Presence of Pessoa, The Presence of Camões, and Conversations</em> with Elizabeth Bishop and <em>Critical Essays on Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms</em>. Among his translations are <em>Iberian Poems by Miguel Torga</em>, <em>A Man Smiles at Death with Half a Face by José Rodrigues Miguéis, Self-Analysis and Thirty Other Poems by Fernando Pessoa, and In Crete, with the Minotaur, and Other Poems by Jorge de Sena</em>. He has also published two collections of poems,<em> The Coffee Exchange and Double Weaver's Knot</em>.</p>
