Poems of Brazil. Translated
Walsh, Thomas
January 27, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 323 POEMS OF BRAZIL Translated from the Portuguese by Thomas Walsh The Blue Fly Once in the springtime a bluebottle fly With wings all crimson gold was...
...The Vicious Circle Glancing aloft the firefly made its moan: "Would only I were like yon radiant star Burning its taper in the blue afarl" While sighed the star: "Oh, would my ray were thrown As is the silvery suffusion sown Around some Grecian columned window jar Where lovers' tender secrets whispered are...
...with her hies the swallow, Where the rays of sunshine follow— Dona Alda fares along...
...While Sol repined amid his blazing car: "This godlike noon is all too weary grown— These azure spaces all my spirit mar— Why was the firefly's flicker not my own...
...Himself—a king—a king of old Cashmere...
...In vain my sight is tracing Through all night's halidom Till thou, thy window gracing, Shalt come...
...Speechless, he stood transfixed before her there Like some poor dervish rigid in his dream, Lost in confusion of his fond despair And powerless to solve her magic gleam...
...For 'mid the brilliant wings that fluttered far, There seemed to rise a princely palace blown Of splendors lifting to the evening star— And there he saw a face—it was his own...
...Dona Alda never stays...
...Francisca Julia da Silva...
...While five-score hideous Ethiops with fans Of ostrich plume bend mutely at their task To cool the bosoms of the courtesans, Stirring the amorous perfumes where they bask...
...Serenade of Romeo The host of stars is trailing Out across the skies With lily whiteness veiling The heavens from mine eyes...
...But—how cruel!—where she goes, Skirt uplifted by the banks, Lies a blossom white as snows Soft beneath her foot repining— "Dona Alda, many thanks...
...Olavo Bilac...
...Around him, ceaseless buzzing, she replied— "Life, I am Life, the flowering of grace, The dream of youth eternal and the pride...
...She flew and bumbled, bumbled as she flew By noons and moonlight, vision beautiful With lovelier lustre than e'er diamond knew Upon the finger of the Grand Mogul...
...As with its life there vanished utterly The fairy vision, and the song was dumb...
...to her waist Fall her golden tresses...
...But o'er the sea the moon laments alone: "Unhappy me...
...An opal necklace on his naked chest— A sacred sapphire shining large and clear Snatched from off holy Vishnu's holy breast...
...Smiles her gentle lips adorning, Turns she down the green recesses Where the flower banks are placed, Where each blossom her addresses A "good morning...
...And home, arrived, perspiring and resolved To undertake a deep experiment Of all the mysteries therein involved...
...Then glory looms with forty conquered kings— A hundred triune nations' tribute proud— 'Mid acclamations and emblazonings And western diadems suppliant in the crowd...
...ah, would this heaving bar Of radiance immortal I had known...
...Round her swirls the leafy throng— Fares she on, the brilliant glows 'Neath her lashes shining...
...Look, fame and love amid my flight I trace...
...Until a toiler saw her in amaze, A grimy toiler, and he asked her—"Why This glitter of a pageant for my gaze ? Tell me who taught you this, my lovely fly...
...T)ona Alda Early rises Dona Alda...
...He has forgot the fly he caught that day I" Joaquim Maria Machado db Assis...
...Today he passes with his locks anoint With cardamom and aloes and they say, Mocking his state—"His mind is out of joint...
...To vivisect his vision he was bent...
...And he dissected well, so artfully He saw the battered, piecemeal thing succumb...
...And stretching out his rough and calloused hand - Accustomed only to his rustic trade, He caught the glittering marvel where it fanned, Curious to study how the thing was made...
...Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis...
...January 27, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 323 POEMS OF BRAZIL Translated from the Portuguese by Thomas Walsh The Blue Fly Once in the springtime a bluebottle fly With wings all crimson gold was born—a child Of China or of Hindustan, to lie Where petals of the purple roses smiled...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 12
