sexta-feira, 8 de outubro de 2010

Not in our name... / Pledge of Resistance

Great poem by Saul Williams...

You can listen to hom reading it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HU-YF0JbW0

We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government,
in our names

Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions
of blood for oil

Not in our name
will you invade countries
bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil

Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples
or countries to be deemed evil

Not by our will
and Not in our name

We pledge resistance

We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice,
freedom and peace

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.

sexta-feira, 17 de setembro de 2010

Cântico Negro

"Vem por aqui" --- dizem-me alguns com olhos doces,
Estendendo-me os braços, e seguros
De que seria bom se eu os ouvisse
Quando me dizem: "vem por aqui"!
Eu olho-os com olhos lassos,
(Há, nos meus olhos, ironias e cansaços)
E cruzo os braços,
E nunca vou por ali...

A minha glória é esta:
Criar desumanidade!
Não acompanhar ninguém.
--- Que eu vivo com o mesmo sem-vontade
Com que rasguei o ventre a minha mãe.

Não, não vou por aí! Só vou por onde
Me levam meus próprios passos...

Se ao que busco saber nenhum de vós responde,
Por que me repetis: "vem por aqui"?
Prefiro escorregar nos becos lamacentos,
Redemoinhar aos ventos,
Como farrapos, arrastar os pés sangrentos,
A ir por aí...

Se vim ao mundo, foi
Só para desflorar florestas virgens,
E desenhar meus próprios pés na areia inexplorada!
O mais que faço não vale nada.

Como, pois, sereis vós
Que me dareis machados, ferramentas, e coragem
Para eu derrubar os meus obstáculos?...
Corre, nas vossas veias, sangue velho dos avós,
E vós amais o que é fácil!
Eu amo o Longe e a Miragem,
Amo os abismos, as torrentes, os desertos...

Ide! tendes estradas,
Tendes jardins, tendes canteiros,
Tendes pátrias, tendes tectos,
E tendes regras, e tratados, e filósofos, e sábios.
Eu tenho a minha Loucura!

Levanto-a, como um facho, a arder na noite escura,
E sinto espuma, e sangue, e cânticos nos lábios...

Deus e o Diabo é que me guiam, mais ninguém.
Todos tiveram pai, todos tiveram mãe;
Mas eu, que nunca principio nem acabo,
Nasci do amor que há entre Deus e o Diabo.

Ah, que ninguém me dê piedosas intenções!
Ninguém me peça definições!
Ninguém me diga: "vem por aqui"!
A minha vida é um vendaval que se soltou.
É uma onda que se alevantou.
É um átomo a mais que se animou...
Não sei por onde vou,
Não sei para onde vou,
--- Sei que não vou por aí.

José Régio

quinta-feira, 16 de setembro de 2010

Black Chant

Black Chant
(from the original "Cântico Negro" by portuguese poet José Régio. The original version can be found in:

"Come this way" -- some tell me with sweet eyes,
streching their arms to me, and sure
it would be good for me to hear them
when they tell me "Come this way"!
I look to them, with loose eyes,
(there are, in my eyes, ironies and weariness)
And I cross my arms,
And never go through there...

This is my glory:
To create inhumanity!
Go along with no one.
--- For I live with the same lack of will
with wich I tore my mother's womb!

No, I won't go through there! I'll only go through where
my own footsteps lead me!

If for what I seek to know none of you can answer
why do you repeat at me "Come this way"?
I prefer to slip on muddy alleys
Swirl in the winds,
Like rags, dragging their bleeding feet,
Than go through there.

If I came into the world, was
Only to deflower virgin forests,
And draw my own feet in the sand unexplored!
The most I do is worth nothing.

How, then, will you be,
Who give me axes, tools and courage,
For me to overcome my obstacles??...
Flows, through your veins, old grandparent's blood
And you love what is easy!
I love the Far, and the Mirage,
I love the abyss, the torrents, the deserts...

Go! You have roads,
You have gardens, you have flower beds,
you have nations(1), you have ceilngs,
And you have rules, and treaties, and philosophers, and sages.
I got my madness!

I rise it, like a torch, burning in the dark night,
And feel foam and blood, and songs on the lips...

God and the Devil are the ones guiding me, no one else.
All had father, all had mother,
But I, who never begin or end,
Was born out of the love that is between God and the Devil.

Ah, no one give me pious intentions!
Nobody ask me definitions!
Nobody tells me: "Come this way"!
My life is a storm broken loose.
It is a wave welling up.
It's a extra atom that was excited...
I don't know through where I'll go,
I don't know where I'll go,
--- I know I won't go through there

(1) "Pátria" in the original, wich refers to one's Home Country

Poor in quality but rich in good intentions, translated by Me - 16/Sept/2010, after not finding a better translation :)