All love letters are
Ridiculous.
They wouldn't be love letters if they weren't
Ridiculous.
In my time I also wrote love letters,
exactly as the others,
Ridiculous.
Love letters, if there is love,
Must be
Ridiculous.
But, after all,
Only the creatures that never wrote
Love letters
Are the ones who are
Ridiculous.
I long for that time when I wrote
Without noticing it
Love letters that were
Ridiculous
The truth is that nowadays
My memories
Of those love letters
Are the ones which are
Ridiculous.
(All words longer than three syllables
Along with uncountable feelings,
Are naturally
Ridiculous.)
--Álvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa)
_________
Adapted to English by António Dinis Lopes
