Gonçalves Dias

The song of exile
— traslate Nelson Ascher —

 

Kennst du das Land, wo die Citronen blühen, Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühen? Kennst du es wohl? — Dahin, dahin! Möchtl ich... ziehn. * Goethe

My homeland has many palm-trees
and the thrush-song fills its air;
no bird here can sing as well
as the birds sing over there.
 

We have fields more full of flowers
and a starrier sky above,
we have woods more full of life
and a life more full of love.


Lonely night-time meditations
please me more when I am there;
my homeland has many palm-trees
and the thrush-song fills its air.


Such delights as my land offers
Are not found here nor elsewhere;
lonely night-time meditations
please me more when I am there;
My homeland has many palm-trees
and the thrush-song fills its air.


Don't allow me, God, to die
without getting back to where
I belong, without enjoying
the delights found only there,
without seeing all those palm-trees,
hearing thrush-songs fill the air.

Em Português