Salmo à Vida (Psalm of Life )

Não me faleis, em enlutados versos,
Que um sonho vazio seja a vida!
Pois morta é a alma que adormece
E as aparências enganosas são.



Genuína, a vida! Vida, coisa séria!
O fim último o túmulo não é;
“Sois pó e ao pó retornais”,
Assertiva não condizente à alma.



Nem só de alegrias ou de tristezas
Se traçam nossos destinos
Mas de atos cumpridos a fim de que cada amanhã
Um passo melhor do que hoje seja.



Longa é a tarefa e fugaz é o Tempo,
Nosso corações, posto fortes e valentes,
Como tambores surdos ainda tocam
Marchas fúnebres a caminho do túmulo.



Que no amplo campo de batalhas do mundo
No bivaque da vida,
Não sejais gado inerte e submisso!
Um herói sede na luta!



Ainda que promissor, no Futuro não confieis!
Deixai que o Passado morto os que se foram sepulte!
Agi – no Presente em vida, agi!
Com o coração aberto e com Deus no Alto!



Recordar nos fazem todos os grandes homens
Que podemos tornar sublimes nossas vidas;
E, na despedida, deixar devemos
Nas areias do tempo nossas marcas –



Marcas que, quiçá, um outro ser,
Da vida velejando sobre o mar solene,
Um irmão, náufrago à deriva,
Avistando-as, a esperança há de reaver.



Em alerta e em ação permaneçamos sempre.
Com o coração a qualquer situação pronto
Alcançar procurando, perseguindo sempre,
A lutar e a esperar aprendei.

Henry Longfellow

(Tradução de Cunha e Silva Filho)

'THE RAINY DAY '

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In: Ballads and Other Poems
(One of my favorite poems)

'FLOWERS '

Spake full well, in language quaint and olden,
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.

Stars they are, wherein we read our history,
As astrologers and seers of eld;
Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery,
Like the burning stars, which they beheld.

Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above;
But not less in the bright flowerets under us
Stands the revelation of his love.

Bright and glorious is that revelation,
Written all over this great world of ours;
Making evident our own creation,
In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.

And the Poet, faithful and far-seeing,
Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part
Of the self-same, universal being,
Which is throbbing in his brain and heart.

Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining,
Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day,
Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining,
Buds that open only to decay;

Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues,
Flaunting gayly in the golden light;
Large desires, with most uncertain issues,
Tender wishes, blossoming at night!

These in flowers and men are more than seeming;
Workings are they of the self-same powers,
Which the Poet, in no idle dreaming,
Seeth in himself and in the flowers.

Everywhere about us are they glowing,
Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born;
Others, their blue eyes with tears o'er-flowing,
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn;

Not alone in Spring's armorial bearing,
And in Summer's green-emblazoned field,
But in arms of brave old Autumn's wearing,
In the centre of his brazen shield;

Not alone in meadows and green alleys,
On the mountain-top, and by the brink
Of sequestered pools in woodland valleys,
Where the slaves of nature stoop to drink;

Not alone in her vast dome of glory,
Not on graves of bird and beast alone,
But in old cathedrals, high and hoary,
On the tombs of heroes, carved in stone;

In the cottage of the rudest peasant,
In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers,
Speaking of the Past unto the Present,
Tell us of the ancient Games of Flowers;

In all places, then, and in all seasons,
Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings,
Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons,
How akin they are to human things.

And with childlike, credulous affection
We behold their tender buds expand;
Emblems of our own great resurrection,
Emblems of the bright and better land.


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In:Voices of the Night