Man and his Journeys
This poem was translated from O homem; as viagens, by Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
Man, little Earth animal,
gets bored on Earth
a place of misery and little fun ,
He builds a rocket, a capsule, a module
takes off to the Moon
cautiously lands on the Moon
steps on the Moon
sticks his flag on the Moon
experiences the Moon
colonizes the Moon
civilizes the Moon
humanizes the Moon.
Humanized Moon: so much like Earth.
Man gets bored on the Moon.
Let´s go to Mars - He commands his machines.
They obey, Man lands on Mars
steps on Mars
experiences
colonizes
civilizes
humanizes Mars with ingenuity and art .
Humanized Mars, what a square place.
Let´s go somewhere else?
Of course - says the engine
sophisticated and docile.
Let´s go to Venus.
Man lands on Venus,
sees the seen - is that all?
ditto
ditto
ditto.
Man goes crazy if doesn´t go to Jupiter
to claim justice along with injustice
to repeat the monotony
to repeat the unquiet
repetitive.
There are remaining planets for colonies .
The whole Space turns into Earth -to- Earth.
Mar arrives at the Sun or just goes around
to see it?
Isn´t it amazing that he invents
sidereal clothing to live in the Sun?
He lands and:
the Sun is boring, a tamed
Spanish bull.
There are more systems other than the Solar
to colonize.
When there´s no one left
it will only remain to Man
(will he be equiped?)
the arduous, extremely dangerous journey
from self to self:
to land
on his own heart
to experience
to colonize
to civilize
to humanize
the Man
discovering in his own unexplored depths
the perennial, unsuspected joy
of living-with.
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Keiko Amano says:
Luciana, I love this poem.
Luciana,
I love this poem. It's easy for me to follow, and it's artistic and makes sense. Thank you. Did you translate it? From Spanish? I was unsure because the top part is blurred by garbage. I wonder if it is only on my display.
Luciana Lhullier says:
I felt so frustrated I
I felt so frustrated I couldn´t eliminate that code in the first part! I´m going to ask Huntington for help.
Meanwhile, Keiko, yes I translated that, but from Portuguese. Drummond was a 20th century Brazilian poet and I chose that specific poem due to the July 20th anniversary of astronauts landing and walking on the Moon.The link is to my reading of that poem in Portuguese, if you´re curious to hear some of the sounds of the language.:-)
Keiko Amano says:
Idem. De con-viver.
Luciana,
Thank you for finding this poem and putting your effort to translate it. Good poem translation needs special skills. And I appreciate the link. I listened to it twice, and I confirmed my past memory: Portuguese sounds a bit like French and Spanish. The reader has good voice. It sent me to the moon, Mar and Venus, and then to my heart. Idem, Idem, Idem. De con-viver.
I feel so romantic. My son's name is all over the poem. How many times I see it, it gives me joy. Sol.
Luciana Lhullier says:
Your son´s name is Sol?
Your son´s name is Sol? That´s so beautiful!
I´m glad you liked the translation,Keiko. I´m always very careful when translating poetry yet I insist on doing it, because of the challenge it brings to me.
Keiko Amano says:
It takes special people to
It takes special people to keep the challenge of such a difficult task. There are no end to the art.
Huntington W. Sharp says:
HTML gobbledygook
Luciana, I emailed my instructions, but I'm going to repeat them here since we're still trying to fix this recurring problem:
1. Go to the blog post.
2. Click the Edit tab. The post should appear first with rich text disabled. That means that all the HTML code will appear, even within the text you want to keep.
3. Delete all characters the occur before the first actual word of your post. Scroll to the end and delete all characters that occur after the last word or punctuation of your post.
4. Click “Submit.”
Huntington Sharp, Red Room
Luciana Lhullier says:
Gobbledygook
Hi Huntington, I should say I love that word, despite the trouble it´s been giving me and you. :-)
I did as you wrote and I ended up with links in the poem as well. That´s ok. At least I got rid of the HTML gobbl...
Thank you so much,
Luciana
Huntington W. Sharp says:
More on gobbledegook
Your fellow Red Roomer, David Niall Wilson, posted a comment almost a year ago about a way to avoid the problem: http://www.redroom.com/blog/amy-hammond-hagberg/my-most-embarrassing-mom.... I hope it helps.
By the way, I got rid of those links for you. For some reason, the link to the original poem was embedded several times in the text you copied. Who knows why? Not I. :)
Huntington Sharp, Red Room
Luciana Lhullier says:
Not I either, although I was
Not I either, although I was the one who perpetrated that crime.:-)
I guess I was trying to eliminate the spaces with code inbetween and ended up linking my translation to the audio part, which is from the original poem, and wasn´t able to undo it. See, Huntington, I´m close to what you´d call illiterate when it comes to computer language. But I´m learning...
Thanks for the link.
Luciana
Keiko Amano says:
Huntingon,Thank you for the
Huntingon,
Thank you for the following:
1. Making a visit t( I forgot this is Luciana's site)
2. Fixing the Luciana's problem
3. Providing us the procedure to fix it.
4. following up further for future problems
5. Introducing an interesting word: gobbledygook
I appreciate your good work in RR and being a good neighbor.
Dorraine K. Darden says:
Thanks for sharing this,
Thanks for sharing this, Luciana! Your language is quite lovely. Your voice too! Landing on our own hearts and humanizing them; now that's what we're truly here to do.
Mary Wilkinson says:
Lovely poem Luciana. It made
Lovely poem Luciana. It made me think about how precious my own world is and not to take it for granted. Mp
Ellen R. Sheeley says:
Thanks for translating this
Thanks for translating this for us, Luciana.
Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon, was a native of a town adjacent to the one I was living in at the time. I can remember, as a child, my parents taking me to his homecoming parade and seeing him, which is astonishing to me now, as he is such a known recluse.
Luciana Lhullier says:
Dorraine, Mary and Ellen, I
Dorraine, Mary and Ellen, I was reading a book last night in which the author pointed out, among other things, that it´s easier for us, people, to go to other planets than embark in self-knowledge. It frightens us to realize that many of our problems, that we usually blame on other people, are actually originated whithin ourselves. I´d say it´s even harder for us in the West to do that. Self-knowledge seems reduced to playful activities of What dog are you? or What your favorite color tells about your personality? and when we burn out of expecting so much from others, who can´t possibily give us so much, we resort to medication. I don´t have anything against medication, I think it helps a lot, but it´s not the solution.
I can tell by your writing that you´ve been traveling a lot to your own hearts, and that´s why you´re so great to have around! :-)
Keiko Amano says:
About meditation
I agree. And if one hour doesn't work, two hous and so on. What kind of life will it be for us if we need to meditate all day and all year around. We can't have children or do anything.
Luciana Lhullier says:
Keiko, I meant medication,
Keiko, I meant medication, anti-depressants and the like, but I see your point : there should be always a balance. One can´t spend the whole time in self-knowledge, otherwise it turns into selfishness and self-absorbance.
Keiko Amano says:
A Nemo, Oh, my goodness,
A Nemo,
Oh, my goodness, medication. I talked too much about OM, everything turned to that direction. You're right about medication and a balance.
Ellen R. Sheeley says:
I'm almost always skeptical
I'm almost always skeptical of people who continually overschedule themselves and can't stand to be alone or sit still. What are they running from? Is their own company really that horrible?
Mary Wilkinson says:
Ellen, I know a few people
Ellen, I know a few people like that and I believe they are running from the truth, bad relationship with spouse or children or a strong desire to always have something to rattle on about, oh I did this or that, went here or there, achieved this, god, it drives me nuts.
Ellen R. Sheeley says:
I think you are right, Mary,
I think you are right, Mary, and it drives me bonkers, too. So often these same people lack any capacity for introspection, and I find them ultimately quite shallow and boring.
Hell, anyone can stay busy. That is no trick. The challenge is to be able to prioritize and to use time in the way one really wishes, while keeping good people around oneself.
Luciana Lhullier says:
I know a couple people (they
I know a couple people (they don´t know each other) who are never home. It´s really hard to find them home. And the reason for that, I suspect, is that they would have to live with their own company. Their internal lives are so unfullfilling, they´re so shallow, that they run away from their own company. One of them is part of my husband´s extended family and another one is my co-worker. But they have always impressed me by their inability to express an opinion based on their own thoughts. Their opinions, that they express as if they were an absolute truth, are always reflected on what other people might think of them.
Keiko Amano says:
Mary, Ellen, Luciana
I think this is very deep subject: "Inability to express an opinion based on their own thoughts." I used to think that It could be just plain boring and shallow, but I found out that for certain issues, some people actually have nothing in their thoughts. I wonder why. But if I ask why too many times, those people tell me I think too much.
Kunzang Drolma says:
Thank you, Luciana!
What a delightful poem. I love the way it starts with man as "little earth animal", rather than the colossus we think ourselves to be. And the repetition of behaviour as we seek to expand into newness, the futute because of boredom with the familar, the present. Then gently leading us back from "out there" to the true source of joy, within. I loved the humour in it; a perfect time to translate it and remind us of the journey to the heart.
Keiko Amano says:
Kunzang, Thank you for your
Kunzang,
Thank you for your words: the Journey to the heart. Your presense is very comforting.
Luciana Lhullier says:
You´re welcome!
Kunzang, Drummond was a small town guy who became one of the greatest Brazilian poets, being able to live just from the sales of his books, which was uncommon some decades ago. His poetry is filled with this realization that we are, after all, little Earth animals. :-)
Sue Glasco says:
Smithsonian needs your translation, I think!
Luciana--This fall some of our Illinois museums in cooperation with the Illinois Humanities Council will be hosting a Smithsonian Institution exhibit titled "Journey Stories." (I don't know if this is nation-wide or not. I just heard of a second Illinois museum doing this. I am to speak on the Trail of Tears at Mascoutah Musuem in conjunction with this journey exhibit. The exhibit is be a diverse story "focused on immigration, migration, innovation, and freedom." And on and on--including the forced moves of Indian and African-Americans. Your lovely translation fits that theme so well.
Luciana Lhullier says:
You´re so kind, Sue!
This has not been published- I did it for this blog post, so I don´t think it counts. I know Drummond´s been translated by American poets Elizabeth Bishop, Lloyd Schwartz and some others. I haven´t seen those translations, I´m not sure whether they have translated this specific poem, but I´m too tiny a fish swimming in this ocean...I´m a Nemo :-)However, feel free to use the translation,if you´d like to. I´d be honored.