In the Desert
By Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
Half of me horse of myself I rein you in
I quell you by spur and rein
So that you don’t lose yourself in dead cities
So that you don’t lose yourself
Not even in Babylonian trades
Not even in Nineveh’s bloody rivers
I point your snout to the clean desert
To the clean perfume of the desert
To its end to end solitude
Because of that I quell I struggle I rein you in
And the bridle cuts the spur hurts the rein holds you back
To be able to release you in the desert
Where we are not us two but only one oneself
In the clean desert and its perfume of luminaries
In the vast clean brightness of the desert
Within each poem
Light and fire lost but so close
Where we are not us two but only one oneself
__________
Translated by António Dinis Lopes from the original poem "No Deserto" as found in Geografia, ed. Ática, 1967
Photo by Jennifer Allison, "Alone"
One Street Shy
