NOTA: Os
interessados poderão ler na wikipédia sobre a constelação
do Cruzeiro do Sul que é visível a sul do paralelo
26º54''N.
English
version
An introduction
to the poem: In
Horizon Pessoa muses about the fear of the unknown that prevents
man from "unraveling the mist". Such was the fear of the
unknown sea, but once the first explorers went there to check they
found nothing but coral, beaches, flowers and birds. The dream,
to which Pessoa attaches great importance, is to imagine those shapes
before they are perceived. The most beautiful part of this calm
poem is the reference to the Southern Cross which, of all Europeans,
an unrecorded Portuguese navigator was the first to see.
Horizon
Oh
sea created before man, your fears
Had coral and beaches and groves of trees.
The night and the thick mist unraveled,
The storms and the mystery surpassed,
The Distance opened in flower, and
the Southern Cross
Shone in splendour over the galleons of initiation.
Austere line of the far-off coast-
When the ship comes near, the slope raises up
In trees where the Distance had been empty;
Closer by, the land opens up in sounds and colours:
And, on disembarking, there are birds, flowers,
Where, from afar, there had only been a meaningless line.
The dream consists in seeing the invisible shapes
Of the hazy distance, and, with perceptible
Movements of hope and will,
Search out in the cold line of the horizon
The tree, the beach, the flower, the bird, the spring-
The well deserved kisses of Truth.
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