Friday 16 January 2015

“Abrir o Impossível” by Cecília Meireles (in Portuguese)



Tu tens um medo:
Se você errou
Se você errou, peça desculpas...

É difícil perdoar?
Mas quem disse que é fácil se arrepender?

Se você sente algo diga...

É difícil se abrir?
Mas quem disse que é fácil encontrar alguém que queira escutar?

Se alguém reclama de você, ouça...

É difícil ouvir certas coisas?
Mas quem disse que é fácil ouvir você?

Se alguém te ama, ame-o...
É difícil entregar-se?
Mas quem disse que é fácil ser feliz?

Nem tudo é fácil na vida...
Mas, com certeza, nada é impossível...

Thursday 15 January 2015

“Ballade de Marguerite” by Oscar Wilde (in English)



I am weary of lying within the chase
When the knights are meeting in market-place.

Nay, go not thou to the red-roofed town
Lest the hoofs of the war-horse tread thee down.

But I would not go where the Squires ride,
I would only walk by my Lady's side.

Alack! and alack! thou art overbold,
A Forester's son may not eat off gold.

Will she love me the less that my Father is seen
Each Martinmas day in a doublet green?

Perchance she is sewing at tapestrie,
Spindle and loom are not meet for thee.

Ah, if she is working the arras bright
I might ravel the threads by the fire-light.

Perchance she is hunting of the deer,
How could you follow o'er hill and mere?

Ah, if she is riding with the court,
I might run beside her and wind the morte.

Perchance she is kneeling in St. Denys,
(On her soul may our Lady have gramercy!)

Ah, if she is praying in lone chapelle,
I might swing the censer and ring the bell.

Come in, my son, for you look sae pale,
The father shall fill thee a stoup of ale.

But who are these knights in bright array?
Is it a pageant the rich folks play?

'T is the King of England from over sea,
Who has come unto visit our fair countrie.

But why does the curfew toll sae low?
And why do the mourners walk a-row?

O 't is Hugh of Amiens my sister's son
Who is lying stark, for his day is done.

Nay, nay, for I see white lilies clear,
It is no strong man who lies on the bier.

O 't is old Dame Jeannette that kept the hall,
I knew she would die at the autumn fall.

Dame Jeannette had not that gold-brown hair,
Old Jeannette was not a maiden fair.

O 't is none of our kith and none of our kin,
(Her soul may our Lady assoil from sin!)

But I hear the boy's voice chaunting sweet,
'Elle est morte, la Marguerite.'

Come in, my son, and lie on the bed,
And let the dead folk bury their dead.

O mother, you know I loved her true:
O mother, hath one grave room for two?

Wednesday 14 January 2015

“Spring” by Lord Alfred Douglas (in English)



Wake up again, sad heart, wake up again !
(I heard the birds this morning singing sweet.)
Wake up again ! The sky was crystal clear,
And washed quite clean with rain ;
And tar below my heart stirred with the year,
Stirred with the year and sighed. O pallid feet
Move now at last, O heart that sleeps with pain
Rise up and hear
The voices in the valleys, run to meet
The songs and shadows. O wake up again !

Put out green leaves, dead tree, put out green leaves t
(Last night the moon was soft and kissed the air.)
Put out green leaves ! The moon was in the skies,
All night she wakes and weaves.
The dew was on the grass like fairies' eyes,
Like fairies' eyes. O trees so black and bare,
Remember all the fruits, the full gold sheaves;
For nothing dies,
The songs that are, are silences that were,
Summer was Winter. O put but green leaves!

Break through the earth, pale flower, break through the earth !
(All day the lark has sung a madrigal.)
Break through the earth that lies not lightly yet
And waits thy patient birth,
Waits for the jonquil and the violet,
The violet. Full soon the heavy pall
Will be a bed, and in the noon of mirth
Some rivulet
Will bubble in my wilderness, some call
Will touch my silence. O break through the earth.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Untitled Poem by José Thiesen (in Portuguese)

Ao F. M. Pires

Agora eu
Bebo dum
Cálice amargo.
Deu-mo
Ele, o erro
Fatal,
Gatuno de meu coração.
Hoje eu bebo,
Incerto de mim mesmo,
Juntando os cacos de mim
Morro mais e mais,
Na dor detido,
Ouvindo a
Porta que se fecha,
Quebrando de pavor.
Reajir eu tento,
Seguir adiante eu tento,
Tento esquecer de tudo, mas
Uma coisa só fica:
Vivo de amar-te e como
Xara, isso me fere o coração,
Zaida que me fustiga.

Saturday 10 January 2015

"Book of Nahum", (chapter 2) (in English)



Chapter 2

1 To Juda - See, upon the mountains there advances the bearer
of good news,             announcing peace!
Celebrate your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows!
For Belial will never pass through you again;
he is completely destroyed.
2 The LORD will restore the vine of Jacob,
the pride of Israel,
Though ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined the tendrils.
3 The hammer comes up against you;
guard the rampart,
Keep watch on the road, gird your loins,
marshall all your strength!
4 The shields of his warriors are crimsoned,
the soldiers colored in scarlet;
Fiery steel are the chariots on the day of his mustering.
The horses are frenzied;
5 the chariots dash madly through the streets
And wheel in the squares,
looking like firebrands,
flashing like lightning bolts.
6 His picked troops are called,
ranks break at their charge;
To the wall they rush,
the mantelet is set up.
7 The river gates are opened,
the palace shudders,
8 The Lady is led forth captive,
and her handmaids, under guard,
Moaning like doves,
beating their breasts.
9 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters escape;
"Stop! Stop!"
but none turns back.
10 "Plunder the silver, plunder the gold!"
There is no end to the treasure,
to their wealth in precious things of every kind!
11 Emptiness, desolation, waste;
melting hearts and trembling knees,
Writhing in every frame,
every face blanched!
12 Where is the lions' cave,
the young lions' den,
Where the lion went in and out,
and the cub, with no one
to disturb them?
13 The lion snatched enough for his cubs,
and strangled for his lionesses;
He filled his dens with prey,
and his caves with plunder.
14 I come against you, says the LORD of hosts;
I will consume in smoke your chariots,
 and the sword shall devour your young lions;
Your preying on the land I will bring to an end,
the cry of your lionesses shall be heard no more.


Friday 9 January 2015

Raif Badawi

Raif Badawi com seus três filhos.
Raif Badawi with his three children.
Photographer: Ensaf Haidar

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