Poema de Explicacão
(Para Yeda)
– Lina Gadelha Peterson,  August 1, 1960

Ah! eu me lembro
eramos jovens e simples!

Na verde as coisas
permanecem integras;

Nos é que sofremos
o longo tempo.

Ah! eu me lembro
eramos jovens e simples.

E essa tristeza de agora
e este cansaco nos olhos;

Vos é que descuidamos
da paisagem mais intima.

(Assim, o mar é nosso
as flores se entregam

Ao nosso gesto, a chuva
nos perfuma da mohado

E os carneirinhos ainda
são os mesmos eternos e puros!)

Poema de explicacão:
Nos é que morremos.

Confessions
(For Yeda)
Poetic translation by Maysa Peterson, January 1, 2018
For you, mom because I promised to write your story. And so it begins…

Ah! I remember
when we were young and naïve!

The green things
linger and remain

It is us who suffer
as time passes.

Ah! I remember
when we were young and naïve

With this present sadness
and the weariness in our eyes;

It is you who discarded
our most intimate landscape.

(Thus, the sea is ours,
for the flowers to indulge

With the wave of a hand, the rain
makes us wet

And all the little lambs still
remain forever pure!)

Confessing:
It is us who die.