Translations
Filtering by Tag: Rita Faria
Dyz-m’a myn meu coraçã, Nuno Pereyra
joana meirim
Tell me now this, my heart,
because this I will not silence:
– Why do I follow your art,
Does the passion not suffice
for this trouble that I harbour?
For if it had entangled you
as it has entangled me,
and if yours would pine as mine,
you would say it is for certain
that this trouble is death nigh.
Read MoreGreater plight was never cast
Maria S. Mendes
Greater plight was never cast
not even in love found
than remembrance of grace past,
at times when disgrace abounds.
Read MoreThe serpent closes its ear
Maria S. Mendes
The serpent closes its ear
to the voice of the enchanter;
I didn’t, and now in fear,
I wish I would lose my senses.
Read MoreCantiga, upon departing
Maria S. Mendes
Lady, so sad my eyes
depart from you, my sweet,
that never so sad again
others so sad you’ll meet.
Read MoreI face such great changes
Maria S. Mendes
I face such great changes, translation Rita Faria
I face such great changes,
what can I find safe?
Hope which is so lame,
Misfortune which remains…
All my long illusions beget
All these disillusionments, and let
them go, for time and years have passed
and other concerns I’ve amassed.
Change for me is no more,
a safe pain I’ll have instead:
let in futile hope tread
those who risk what they ignore!
Antre tamanhas mudanças, Bernardim Ribeiro
Antre tamanhas mudanças,
que cousa terei segura?
Duvidosas esperanças,
Tão certa desaventura...
Venham estes desenganos
Do meu longo engano, e vão,
que já o tempo e os anos
outros cuidados me dão.
Já não sou para mudanças,
mais quero ũador segura:
vá crê-las vãs esperanças
quem não sabe o qu’aventura!
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 zombiesin general and thinks the Portuguese language is the most fun in the whole world.
Oh mountains so tall
Maria S. Mendes
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.
Read MoreIf I obeyed reason
Sara Carvalho
If I obeyed reason, translation Rita Faria
Read MoreOh, my castles in the wind
Sara Carvalho
Ó meus castelos de vento
Que em tal cuita me pusestes,
Como me vos desfizestes!
Armei castelos erguidos,
esteve a fortuna queda
e disse: Gostos perdidos,
como is a dar tão grã queda!
Between I, myself and me
Maria S. Mendes
Between I, myself and me, tradução Rita Faria
Between I, myself and me
What has risen I do not know
Which makes me my enemy
For a time with much delusion
I myself have lived with me
Now in the greatest misery
I find great harm comes in profusion.
Sorely costly is disillusionment
and yet kill me it did not
But how sorely have I paid the cost
To myself I am made a stranger
Between consideration and concern
Evil lies there, spun
By great evil to which I succumb.
A new fear, a new woe
This is what has had me so,
Thus I am had, thus I am so.
Antre mim mesmo e mim, Bernardim Ribeiro
Antre mim mesmo e mim
não sei que s’alevantou
que tão meu inimigo sou.
Uns tempos com grand’engano
vivi eu mesmo comigo,
agora no mor perigo
se me descobre o mor dano.
Caro custa um desengano
e pois m’este não matou
quão caro que me custou.
De mim me sou feito alheio,
antr’o cuydado e cuidado
está um mal derramado,
que por mal grande me veio.
Nova dor, novo receio
foi este que me tomou,
assim me tem, assim estou.
Very little is known about Bernardim Ribeiro but at the same time a great deal is known. His poetry was included in Garcia de Resende’s 1516 Cancioneiro Geral and fellow poet and friend Sá de Miranda writes about him (“amigo Ribeiro”) to both praise his literary gifts and lament his mysterious fall from grace. Almeida Garrett attributes the latter to a heartbreaking love story between Bernardim and Beatriz, who happened to be the King’s daughter. Sadly there is no historical evidence for such a cinematic love story. What we do know is that Bernardim, in all likelihood born in the late 1400s and deceased in the mid-1500s, was a poet who enjoyed success and royal favours for a time; left the court for reasons unknown but probably in disgrace; transformed the cadence of music and alliteration into cerebral poetry and wrote the most wonderful beginning to a novel – “Menina e moça me levaram de casa de minha mãe para muito longe. Que causa fosse então daquela minha levada, era ainda pequena, não a soube”. It is also Menina e Moça who provides grounds to believe Bernardim might have been Jewish – converted, reconverted, in exile, we don’t know (as explained by Helder Macedo in his preface to Menina e Moça, D. Quixote, 1999). His mind seems to have been a mind in exile – and there are many forms of exile, with which Bernardim was certainly acquainted. This, we know.
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.