Não digas nada!
Não, nem a verdade!
Há tanta suavidade
Em nada se dizer
E tudo se entender —
Tudo metade
De sentir e de ver…
Não digas nada!
Deixa esquecer.
Talvez que amanhã
Em outra paisagem
Digas que foi vã
Toda esta viagem
Até onde quis
Ser quem me agrada…
Mas ali fui feliz…
Não digas nada.
NO, DON’T SAY ANYTHING
No, don’t say anything,
not even if it’s true.
So smooth,
our not saying anything.
Yet everything’s heard,
feelings and sight
half-experienced
in our not saying anything.
Allow me to forget.
Maybe tomorrow
you will explain
to another landscape
what was pretentious,
pointless.
In as much as I
wanted to be an “I”
who pleased a “me.”
Then joy came.
Don’t say anything.
JZ Houlihan is a poet and literary translator. Houlihan’s original verse in Classical Latin is included in The Vates Anthology of New Latin Poetry, and his translation of Fernando Pessoa can be found in Metamorphoses, Vol. 20, Issue 1. He lives in Houston, Texas and has taught Classics for decades.
