From my Master's Thesis, in progress, a translation of Icaro, a book of Portuguese poetry by my great-great-great grandmother Angelina Vidal.
Ave, Lux!
Brazil, Patria de luz! Brazil, terra bemdita,
Que trazes na consciencia o altar da Liberdade,
Onde se abre o missal da civica hombridade
Na pagina do Amor, que os povos nobilita!
Brazil, ninho auroral, onde o Progresso habita
E o pensamento guia os passos da Vontade!
Eu venho a desatar rosarios de piedade
No calix consagrado a dor que em ti palpita...
Mas na hora solemne, a hora da paixao,
Em que chora o sabia, e tece a lua cheia
A mortalha lilial de um grande coracao,
Embora christalise a tragica epopeia,
Minha alma ousa affirmar--Terra da Promissao,
Teu filho nao morreu...porque nao morre a Ideia!
by Angelina Vidal
Hail, Light!
Brazil, motherland of light! Brazil, blessed earth,
you bring into conscience the altar of liberty,
where if the civic man opens the prayer book
onto the page of love, your people are ennobled!
Brazil, dawn’s nest, where progress lives
and the way of thinking guides steps with pleasure!
I come to undo rosaries from piety
and pour them into the chalice made from the ache throbbing in you...
But in that solemn hour, the hour of passion,
the thrush cries, and the full moon weaves
a lily shroud from a grand heart,
though an epic tragedy crystallizes,
my soul dares declare--Promised Land,
your son shall not die...because the idea does not die!
translation by D. Evan Peterson
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