“No, you’re right, I’m wrong”
Translated By Patricio Ferrari & Margaret Jull Costa
No, you’re right, I’m wrong ...
Allow me to drift off from this pointless argument,
I’m wrong in my opinion, that’s fine, I’m not deeply attached to that opinion anyway ...
I’m not even listening, you say? I don’t know.
I think I am. But repeat what you just said.
Love should be constant?
Yes, it should be constant.
But only in love, of course.
Say it again, will you? ...
People make life so very complicated!
Yes, fine, I’ll bring the money tomorrow.
O great sun, you know nothing of this,
A joy we cannot even contemplate in the serene blue unreachable sky.
Translated from the Portuguese
Notes:
Audio version performed by Margaret Jull Costa.
Read the Portuguese-language original, “Sim, não tenho razão,” and the translators’ note by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari.
Source: Poetry (May 2023)