Biography.
Cecília Benevides de Carvalho Meireles (Rio de Janeiro, 1901–1964) was a Brazilian writer and educator, known principally as a poet. She is a canonical name of Brazilian Modernism, one of the great female poets in the Portuguese language, and is widely considered the best female poet from Brazil, though she combated the word poetess because of gender discrimination. Her style was mostly neo-symbolist and her themes included ephemeral time and the contemplative life.
Motive
I sing because the moment exists
And my life is complete.
I am not gay, I am not sad:
I am a poet.
Brother of fugitive things,
I feel no delight or torment.
I cross nights and days
In the wind.
Whether I destroy or build,
Whether I persist or disperse,
— I don´t know, I don´t know.
I don´t know if I stay or go.
I know that I sing.
The song is everything.
The rhythmic wing has eternal blood,
And I know that one day I shall be dumb:
— Nothing more.
Portrait
I did not have this face of today
So calm
So sad
So thin.
Nor these eyes so empty
Nor this bitter mouth.
I did not have these strenghtless hands
So still
And cold
And dead.
I did not realize this change
So simple
So certain
So easy.
In what mirror did I lose my face?
Introduction
Here is my life:
This sand so clear
With drawing that walk
Dedicated to the wind…
Here is my voice:
This empty shell
The shadow of a sound
Preserving its own lament…
Here is my grief:
This broken coral
Surviving its pathetic moment…
Here is my heritage:
This solitary sea —
On one side it was love
And on the other forgetfulness.
Translated by John Nist.
[MODERN BRAZILIAN POETRY, AN ANTHOLOGY. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962]
