Friday, May 31, 2013

In order to be great, be whole



In order to be great, be whole: do not
Exaggerate or obviate your aught.
Be full in every part. And put your all
Into the least you do, however small.
The moon on every tiny lake hereby
Does shine. And why? Because she lives on high.

Ricardo Reis (Fernando Pessoa)

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This is a translation of a poem by one of Fernando Pessoa's personas. I wonder if he put his all into all of his many masks.


Para ser grande, sê inteiro



Para ser grande, sê inteiro: nada
Teu exagera ou exclui.
Sê todo em cada coisa. Põe quanto és
No mínimo que fazes.
Assim em cada lago a lua toda 
Brilha, porque alta vive

The Dullness of an Hour


O Boredom! what have you to do upon
This kingdom? Why do you prolong this slow
Dull drone of flowing lentowhence this yawn
Is come and gone; now come; gone; to and fro?
How come you busy so yourself this much
To make myself unbusy, Tedium?
Why clutch me by this vacuous dumb touch,
And bury me in dense alluvium?
The hours, slow and by they go; but gone
Are past too fast in such vast clustered heaps;
Whereby from sunset down to rosy dawn
My selfsame soul no useful hour keeps.
   Yet torpor is a being's duty fare
   For his not being altogether there.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

The Lost Daffodil



Like Wordsworth's shiny yellow daffodil
This image flashed upon my inward eye
Many a time, for I did love you still
My love for you would still refuse to die.
Daily I still would summon forth your face
Instilled from memories of joy and grief,
And still be warm in your infilled embrace,
Which lost would still be my still heart's motif.
But human love bows to vicissitude
And my love scorned and spurned and spat in spite
Being thus human, though in spate, was skewed,
And lost your shiny face from fancy's sight.
   Now I do long for other daffodils
   For love still wants a face to face in stills.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Four Couplet Epigrams



So every shower is a secret stage
Wherein imprisoned spirits men uncage.


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If I could travel time and go to school
Again, to be a sage and not a fool!

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Though subjectivity's the law of man,
A subject must embrace his Lord's own plan.

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These people prone to constant rigmarole
Would do so well to eat an apple whole.