A poem by Pedro da Silveira, one of the Azores best known poets, whose centennial was commemorated in 2022. Although he lived in Lisbon most of his adult life, he had a strong connection to the Azores (particulary to his native island of Flores) and to the Azorean Diaspora.

Autumnal (1)

Sweet abandonment of the water-colored afternoon…

Echoes, that the hills lengthen

slowly…

The sweet smell of the round guava

Or the mature figs hanging.

Green, cautiously green

The beech bushes wave (silently) voices.

– A diligent bee sips

the flowers from the cane.

Green, struggling green

the orange trees bleed gold.

(Sweet-smelling liquid gold,

tastes from afar where they came from).

Green, cautiously green…

Green fury of chained green,

green idleness, green astonishment of green:

Dark, watery, transparent, tricky green.

In the distance, diluted, coming

from the fields

the mooing of a young heifer. 

Bruma Publication has began work on translating a collection of poems by Pedro da Silveira, to be published in 2024, titled: Trails of Land and Sea