Eis o poema final do livro!
I've enjoyed translating these poems, and I hope you've enjoyed reading them. I wish, more for the reader's sake than my own, that I'd been more inclined to do some research into Estima de Oliveira's life and work so as to provide more context for these poems, but I'll settle for making these poems available, not just in English but in Portuguese—I don't know if they've been reprinted since O Diálogo do Silêncio first came out in Macau in 1988.
As always, thanks for reading, caro leitor/a. Muito obrigado.
DAS
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48
a força vem do sul
em turbulência
meridiano em meridiano
antárctida do meu sonho
espero por ti
na mesopotâmia
espaço que criei
nas margens dos rios
dos meus desejos
no centro
do universo
que me deste
será o encontro
das lágrimas
vertidas
em séculos
de espera.
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48
the force comes from the south
turbulent
meridian by meridian
antarctica of my dreams
i wait for you
in mesopotamia
the space i created
on the riverbanks
of my desires
in the center
of the universe
that you gave me
will be the meeting
of tears
shed
through centuries
of waiting.
