What is it for?

What is poetry for, my friend? It’s for us to inhabit
and where we are handed warnings and summonses
and go down the stairs
a sniffed key in our hand.
Rain or no rain
to open a box
we need five steps without history.

Let there be a bank statement
junk mail
even a proper bill,
But as a surprise
or (let it be praised)
as a distracted expectation
we’ll surely find there
the mystery envelope.

No matter how often it’s opened,
it will never unveil
nearly all about love.
It will be opened by another sniffed key
rain or no rain
drops will cover our hands
(expecting, of course, not to know for today
what will covertly be declared
about what poetry is for).

© Translated by Ana Hudson, 2010

Para que serve

Para que serve a poesia, minha amiga? serve de morada
é lá que recebemos os avisos e as convocatórias
e descemos as escadas
de chave farejada na mão.
Chova e não chova
para abrir uma caixa
são precisos cinco passos sem história.

Haja o extracto de conta
publicidade
e mesmo uma conta, a sério.
Mas por surpresa
ou (honra lhe seja feita)
distracção da expectativa
aí há-de jazer
o envelope mistério.

Aquele que por mais vezes que o abramos
não desvenda nunca
quase tudo do amor.
Com outra chave farejada o abrimos
chova ou não chova
as mãos enchem-se de gotas
(esperando, sim, não saber, por hoje,
o que de lá se declara dos ocultos,
para que serve a poesia).

in O sangue por um fio, 2009

Sudden Destiny

I couldn’t learn your face by heart
it turned and we were gone
but our eyes had met head on
engraved on the prism face and in the memory
first incubation in neverland
sudden destiny.

When much later
having learned the laws of perspective
I saw your eyes on a straight line
a clear dart
curbed only by that laughter
known to come from lives past –

and the dream, from the night before,
vouching for the original –
I’m not saying I started to believe in everything
but in that moment I believed everything.

I couldn’t learn your face by heart.
On the other hand, I could
from then onwards which is now
command my own destiny
as one says.

© Translated by Ana Hudson, 2010

O destino súbito

Não deu para decorar a tua cara
girou e já tínhamos desaparecido
mas o olhar foi de frente
e ficou na face do prisma e na memória
primeira incubação na terra do nunca
o destino súbito.

Quando muito mais tarde
tendo aprendido as leis de perspectiva
vi os teus olhos numa clara recta
um claro dardo
curvado só por esse riso
que sabemos vir das vidas interiores –

e o sonho, tido de véspera,
me confirmou ser conforme o original –
não digo que passei a acreditar em tudo
mas acreditei em tudo nesse momento.

Não deu para decorar a tua cara.
Por outro lado, saber que fui
a partir daí ou seja agora
dono do meu destino
como se costuma dizer.

in O sangue por um fio, 2009

Sérgio Godinho’s poetry swings between the quotidian and the transcendent, between a direct and transparent speech and a cryptic, harsh, often splintered one. His language keeps in mind a coherent individual, social and discursive body. In either register one senses a blade’s precision, a very fine thread weaving and un-weaving rhythms, poetry’s underground. “Messages yet to be opened” says one of his lines: they deserve to be opened.

Ana Luísa Amaral

https://poemsfromtheportuguese.org/category/sergio-godinho/

Our PBBI-Fresno State Project

Roots and Wings: Portuguese Poetry in Translation is a series that gathers voices from Portugal and introduces English language readers to a tradition at once intimate and expansive, where the rhythms of saudade echo across the Atlantic and the light of new lands refracts into verse.

Each poem is a journey: from the ancestral lands to homes throughout the English-speaking world, from classic poets who shaped a language to contemporary voices writing freedom, justice, and love into the present. Together, these poems are bridges between generations, geographies, and languages.

For Portuguese communities in North America, this series is a return to origins, a reclaiming of memory, and a celebration of their shared heritage. For all readers, it is an invitation to discover a lyrical heritage that speaks to the universal human condition — the desire for home, the ache of distance, and the wonder of words that, like wings, transcend borders.

This project is sponsored by the Luso-American Education Foundation.

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