Eugenio de Andrade (1923 - 2005)

I do not sing because I dream

I do not sing because I dream.
I simply sing because you're real.
I sing your ripened gaze,
your purest smile,
your animal grace.

I sing because I am a man.
And if I didn't sing I'd be
just a brute, bursting with health, blind
drunk and dizzy with delight
there in your vineyard without wine.

I sing because love wishes it.
Because hay ripens
in your arms, glistening wet.
Because my body tightens
facing them, bare and bathed in sweat.


On the path

Nothing

not the white flame of wheat
nor the needles nailed to the pupils of birds
will tell you the word

Do not question do not ask
between reason and the turbulence of snow
there is no difference

Don't gather slops your destiny is you

Take your clothes off
there is no other path


translated from the Portuguese by Alexis Levitin