Song, by Cecilia Meireles

In just fifteen verses, Cecília Meireles manages to compose an ode to the urgency of love in her Song. Simple and direct, the verses call for the return of the beloved.

The poem, present in the book Retrato Natural (1949), also combines recurring elements in the poet’s lyrics: the finiteness of time, the transience of love, and the movement of the wind.

Song

Do not trust in time or eternity,
for the clouds pull me by the dresses
that the winds drag against my desire!

Hurry, my love, for tomorrow I will die,
for tomorrow I will die and I will not see you!

Do not delay so far away, in such a secret place,
mother-of-pearl of silence that the sea compresses,
the lip, limit of the absolute instant!

Hurry, my love, for tomorrow I will die,
for tomorrow I will die and I will not hear you!

Appear to me now, for I still recognize
the anemone open on your face
and around the walls the enemy wind…

Hurry, my love, for tomorrow I will die,
for tomorrow I will die and I will not tell you…