Oh mountains so tall
Maria S. Mendes
Ó montes erguidos, Francisco de Sousa
Abaix’esta serra,
verei minha terra.
Ó montes erguidos,
deixai-vos cair,
deixai-vos somir
e ser destroídos,
pois males sentidos
me dam tanta guerra
por ver minha terra.
Ribeiras do mar,
Que tendes mudanças,
as minhas lembranças
deixai-as passar.
Deixai-mas tornar,
dar novas da terra,
que dá tanta guerra.
Cabo
O sol escurece,
a noite se vem;
meus olhos, meu bem
já nam aparece.
Mais cedo anoitece
aquém desta serra
que na minha terra
Oh mountains so tall, translation Rita Faria
Down with this mountain,
my shore I’ll encounter
Oh mountains so tall,
let yourselves vanish,
let yourselves fall
and be banished,
for such aching pain
has started a war
to see my shore.
Tides of the sea,
Which change with time,
let my remembrances
have thoroughfare free.
Let them return,
bring news of the shore,
which causes such war.
The sun is darkened,
night is coming in;
my eyes, my love
will not come to thee.
Early comes nightfall
in this mountain so tall
not so in my shore
Francisco de Sousa was a navigator who went to Goa with Afonso de Albuquerque in 1509. He hastily returned to Portugal in 1511, which caused him to lose the position of captain. What Afonso de Albuquerque probably did not know was that Francisco de Sousa had returned to the homeland for the greater good – in fact, to kidnap and then marry D. Antónia de Meneses, with whom he had fallen in love, and who was a nun in a convent. Francisco’s nickname was thus “Macias”, in honour of a Galician poet who had become the symbol of lovers. He died in 1559.
Rita Faria is a professor at the Catholic University of Portugal. She doesn’t know how to do anything else apart from reading and writing and wants to do nothing else apart from reading and writing. Besides this, she enjoys horror films, vampires, ghosts and zombies in general, and thinks the Portuguese language is the most fun in the whole world.