Artwork by Ira Joel. Image courtesy of the artist
Quando ontem adormeci
Na noite de São João
Havia alegria e rumor
Estrondos de bombas luzes de Bengala
Vozes cantigas e risos
Ao pé das fogueiras acesas.
No meio da noite despertei
Não ouvi mais vozes nem risos
Apenas balões
Passavam errantes
Silenciosamente
Apenas de vez em quando
O ruido de um bonde
Cortava o silêncio
Como um túnel.
Onde estavam os que há pouco
Dançavam
Cantavam
E riam
Ao pé das fogueiras acesas?
—Estavam todos dormindo
Estavam todos deitados
Dormindo
Profundamente.
* * *
Quando eu tinha seis anos
Não pude ver o fim da festa de São João
Porque adormeci
Hoje não ouço mais as vozes daquêle tempo
Minha avó
Meu avô
Totônio Rodrigues
Tomásia
Rosa
Onde estão êles?
—Estão todos dormindo
Estão todos deitados
Dormindo
Profundamente.
~ Manuel Bandeira
When last night I fell asleep
On the Eve of São João
There was still a hum of noise and joy
Fizzing rockets Catherine wheels
Voices singing laughter
Around the blazing fires.
In the middle of the night I woke
To no more voices no more laughter
Only sky lanterns
Drifting
Silently
Only now and then
The clatter of a tram
Cutting through the silence
Like a tunnel.
Where were they, those who were so lately
Dancing
Singing
And laughing
Around the blazing fires?
They were all sleeping
They were all resting
Sleeping
Deeply.
* * *
When I was six years old
I missed the end of the party
Because I fell asleep
Today the voices of those days are gone
My grandmother
My grandfather
Totônio Rodrigues
Tomásia
Rosa
Where are they now?
They are all sleeping
They are all resting
Sleeping
Deeply.
~ trans. City University Literary Translation Summer School
Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968) was a prominent Brazilian poet, literary critic, and translator. He is “widely accepted as the greatest of the Brazilian Modernist poets“.
Manuel Bandeira’s ‘Profundamente’ was translated into English during the 2015 City University Literary Translation Summer School in London by Jennifer Alexander, Elenice B. Araujo, Sally Bolton, Clara Buxton, Tom Gatehouse, Margaret Jull Costa, Felix Macpherson, Victor Meadowcroft, Maria Reimóndez and Andreea Tudose. The poem first appeared in ‘Libertinagem’ (1930) and is republished online with permission.
Click here to read Tom Gatehouse’s essay on translating ‘Profundamente’ into English.
