Fernando Pessoa/ Alvaro de Campos

"So Many Gods"
So many gods!   
They’re like books—you can’t read everything, you never know anything.   
Happy the man who knows but one god, and keeps him a secret.   
Every day I have different beliefs— 
Sometimes in the same day I have different beliefs— 
And I wish I were the child now crossing   
The view from my window of the street below.   
He’s eating a cheap pastry (he’s poor) without efficient or final cause,   
An animal uselessly raised above the other vertebrates,   
And through his teeth he sings a ribald show tune . . .   
Yes, there are many gods,   
But I’d give anything to the one who’d take that child out of my sight.   
                                                                TRANSLATED BY RICHARD ZENITH

No comments:

Post a Comment

Fernando Pessoa/Alvaro de Campos

  I Got Off the Train I got off the train And said goodbye to the man I'd met. We'd been together for eighteen hours And had a pleas...