"Noções" by Cecília Meireles (in Portuguese)

Entre mim e mim, há vastidões bastantes

Para a navegação dos meus desejos afligidos.

Descem pela água minhas naves revestidas de espelhos.

Cada lâmina arrisca um olhar, e investiga o elemento que a atinge.

Mas, nesta aventura do sonho exposto à correnteza,

Só recolho o gosto infinito das respostas que não se encontram.

Virei-me sobre a minha própria experiência, e contemplei-a.

Minha virtude era esta errância por mares contraditórios,

E este abandono para além da felicidade e da beleza.

Ó meu Deus, isto é minha alma:

Qualquer coisa que flutua sobre este corpo efêmero e precário,

Como o vento largo do oceano sobre a areia passiva e inúmera...

"Como Nuvens que Passam" (Canto V) by José Thiesen (in Portuguese)

Canto V

     - Pára e me ouve! Foi ótimo, foi maravilhoso. És importante pra mim, mas chega! Eu não suporto mais essa dor, a dor de não te alcançar! Teu jeito me fere, teu desleixo, tua obstinação, teu radicalismo! Ferem-me demais! A quanto tempo não conseguimos conversar? Somente nos ferimos com as palavras, com os olhares não trocados! Então te somes por todos esses dias e noites, dizendo que não podes conciliar a mim e tua vida, pra então vir chorando na chuva pedir o meu regaço? como se nada houvesse? Nada está mais ótimo e maravilhoso! Tudo caiu. Eu desmoronei. Fica com a minha toalha de festa.

     

     Fechei-lhe a porta e chorei eu.

   Tudo muito teatral, nós algumas noites antes. Estávamos numa praça escura e um chuvisqueiro miúdo antecipava a noite de hoje. Sentados num banco, silenciosos. Um pouco além, a avenida cheia de luz, ônibus passando, pessoas a correr.

   Eu havia escutado Luciano e suas razões tão certas, precisas, lógicas para terminarmos nossa relação e continuava em silêncio. As idéias, as palavras me passavam pela mente, mas a boca resignava-se á inutilidade de falar.

     Luciano, sempre incomodado com silêncios, perguntou-me em que pensava.

     - Estou lembrado as palavras de meu psicólogo. Ele me disse que quando uma relação vai mal, não a podemos terminar sem ter resolvido os erros nela cometidos, pois do contrário vamos repetir os mesmos erros na próxima.

      - Mas nossa relação não tem problemas; o problema são os outros que não nos aceitam.

      - Certo. O problema são os outros.

Untitled Flash Gordon tale by Larry Ivie (in English)

 art and cover by Al Williamson. Flash Gordon #1 – King Features, Sep. 1966.

"The Tempter" by Robert E. Howard (in English)

Something tapped me on the shoulder

Something whispered, "Come with me,

"Leave the world of men behind you,

"Come where care may never find you

"Come and follow, let me bind you

"Where, in that dark, silent sea,

"Tempest of the world ne'er rages;

"There to dream away the ages,

"Heedless of Time's turning pages,

"Only, come with me."

           

And my soul tugged at its moorings

And it whispered, "Set me free.

"I am weary of this battle,

"Of this world of human cattle,

"All this dreary noise and prattle.

"This you owe to me."

Long I sat and long I pondered,

On the life that I had squandered,

O'er the paths that I had wandered

Never free.

"Who are you?" I asked the phantom,

"I am rest from Hate and Pride.

"I am friend to king and beggar,

"I am Alpha and Omega,

"I was councilor to Hagar

"But men call me suicide."

I was weary of tide breasting,

Weary of the world's behesting,

And I lusted for the resting

As a lover for his bride.

           

In the shadow panorama

Passed life's struggles and its fray.

And my soul tugged with new vigor,

Huger grew the phantom's figure,

As I slowly tugged the trigger,

Saw the world fade swift away.

Through the fogs old Time came striding,

Radiant clouds were 'bout me riding,

As my soul went gliding, gliding,

From the shadow into day.

"Apologia" by Oscar Wilde (in English)

Is it thy will that I should wax and wane,

Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey,

And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain

Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?

Is it thy will--Love that I love so well--

That my Soul's House should be a tortured spot

Wherein, like evil paramours, must dwell

The quenchless flame, the worm that dieth not?

Nay, if it be thy will I shall endure,

And sell ambition at the common mart,

And let dull failure be my vestiture,

And sorrow dig its grave within my heart.

Perchance it may be better so--at least

I have not made my heart a heart of stone,

Nor starved my boyhood of its goodly feast,

Nor walked where Beauty is a thing unknown.

Many a man hath done so; sought to fence

In straitened bonds the soul that should be free,

Trodden the dusty road of common sense,

While all the forest sang of liberty,

Not marking how the spotted hawk in flight

Passed on wide pinion through the lofty air,

To where the steep untrodden mountain height

Caught the last tresses of the Sun God's hair.

Or how the little flower he trod upon,

The daisy, that white-feathered shield of gold,

Followed with wistful eyes the wandering sun

Content if once its leaves were aureoled.

But surely it is something to have been

The best belovèd for a little while,

To have walked hand in hand with Love, and seen

His purple wings flit once across thy smile.

Ay! though the gorgèd asp of passion feed

On my boy's heart, yet have I burst the bars,

Stood face to face with Beauty, known indeed

The Love which moves the Sun and all the stars!

"A Song" by Lord Alfred Douglas (in English)

Steal from the meadows, rob the tall green hills,

Ravish my orchard's blossoms, let me bind

A crown of orchard flowers and daffodils,

Because my love is fair and white and kind.

To-day the thrush has trilled her daintiest phrases,

Flowers with their incense have made drunk the air,

God has bent down to gild the hearts of daisies,

Because my love is kind and white and fair.

To-day the sun has kissed the rose-tree's daughter,

And sad Narcissus, Spring's pale acolyte,

Hangs down his head and smiles into the water,

Because my love is kind and fair and white.

"Ecclesiastes" (Chapter III) by Qoheleth (in English)

Chapter 3

1 There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.

2 A time to be born,

and a time to die;

a time to plant,

and a time to uproot the plant.

3 A time to kill,

and a time to heal;

a time to tear down,

and a time to build.

4 A time to weep,

and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn,

and a time to dance.

5 A time to scatter stones,

and a time to gather them;

a time to embrace,

and a time to be far from embraces.

6 A time to seek,

and a time to lose;

a time to keep,

and a time to cast away.

7 A time to rend,

and a time to sew;

a time to be silent,

and a time to speak.

8 A time to love,

and a time to hate;

a time of war,

and a time of peace.

9 What advantage has the worker from his toil? 10 I have considered the task which God has appointed for men to be busied about. 11 He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

12 I recognized that there is nothing better than to be glad and to do well during life. 13 For every man, moreover, to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor is a gift of God.

14 I recognized that whatever God does will endure forever; there is no adding to it, or taking from it. Thus has God done that he may be revered. 15 What now is has already been; what is to be, already is; and God restores what would otherwise be displaced. 16 And still under the sun in the judgment place I saw wickedness, and in the seat of justice, iniquity. 17 And I said to myself, both the just and the wicked God will judge, since there is a time for every affair and on every work a judgment. 18 I said to myself: As for the children of men, it is God's way of testing them and of showing that they are in themselves like beasts. 19 For the lot of man and of beast is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life-breath, and man has no advantage over the beast; but all is vanity. 20 Both go to the same place; both were made from the dust, and to the dust they both return. 21 Who knows if the life-breath of the children of men goes upward and the life-breath of beasts goes earthward?

22 And I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to rejoice in his work; for this is his lot. Who will let him see what is to come after him?