Agora é passado

Agora é passado – o feliz agora
Quando junto caminhámos
Sob o ramo do carvalho da floresta
E a natureza disse que nos amávamos.
A rajada do Inverno
O agora desde então rastejou
Por entre nós e separou-nos.
Invernos que murcharam todo o verde
Gelaram o bater do coração.
Agora é passado.

Agora é passado desde que por último nos encontrámos
Sob o ramo da aveleira;
Antes que o sol da tarde se pusesse
A sombra dela estendeu-se sobre a terra.
A rajada do Outono
Manchou e definhou cada ramo;
Morangos silvestres como os lábios dela
Deixaram os musgos verdes do chão
E a flor que ela tinha sobre as ancas.
Agora é passado.

Agora é passado, mudado e envelhecido,
As florestas e os campos estão pintados de novo.
Morangos silvestres que ambos colhemos então,
Nenhum de nós sabe agora onde cresciam.
O céu está nublado
Os morangos desapareceram da entrada da floresta
Todas as folhas verdes se tornaram amarelas;
Adelaide já não percorre os caminhos da floresta,
O amor verdadeiro não tem com quem deitar-se.
Agora é passado.


John Clare
Trad. Cecília Rego Pinheiro
in Rosa do Mundo 2001 Poemas para o Futuro, Assírio & Alvim


Now Is Past

Now is past – the happy now
When we together roved
Beneath the wildwood’s oak-tree bough
And Nature said we loved.
Winter’s blast
The now since then has crept between,
And left us both apart.
Winters that withered all the green
Have froze the beating heart.
Now is past.

Now is past since last we met
Beneath the hazel bough;
Before the evening sun was set
Her shadow stretched below.
Autumn’s blast
Has stained and blighted every bough;
Wild strawberries like her lips
Have left the mosses green below,
Her bloom’s upon the hips.
Now is past.

Now is past, is changed agen,
The woods and fields are painted new.
Wild strawberries which both gathered then,
None know now where they grew.
The skys oercast.
Wood strawberries faded from wood sides,
Green leaves have all turned yellow;
No Adelaide walks the wood rides,
True love has no bed-fellow.
Now is past.

John Clare
(Helpston, 13 Jul 1793 – m. 20 May 1864-England)

AN INVITE TO ETERNITY

Wilt thou go with me sweet maid
Say maiden wilt thou go with me
Through the valley-depths of shade
Of night and dark obscurity
Where the path hath lost its way
Where the sun forgets the day
Where there's nor life nor light to see
Sweet maiden wilt thou go with me

Where stones will turn to flooding streams
Where plains will rise like ocean- waves
Where life will fade like visioned dreams
And mountains darken into caves
Say maiden wilt thou go with me
Through this sad non-identity
Where parents live and are forgot
And sisters live and know us not

Say maiden wilt thou go with me
In this strange death of life-to-be
To live in death and be the same
Without this life or home or name
At once to be and not to be
That was and is not- yet to see
Things pass like shadows- and the sky
Above, below, around us lie.

The land of shadows wilt thou trace
And look nor know each other's face
The present mixed with seasons gone
And past and present all as one
Say maiden can thy life be led
To join the living with the dead
Then trace thy footsteps on with me
We're wed to one eternity

John Clare