POEMA DE RUI PIRES CABRAL
A vida paralela
Nenhum comboio nos leva
tão longe: uma cidade morta
vive ainda na rara canção.
Escuta as palavras que ensina
e todas as coisas que volta
a mostrar: a noite, o regresso
ao quarto emprestado,
as caves com livros
de Charing Cross Road
e o tempo lá fora
tão frio.
in Ladrador, 2012
A parallel life
No train will take us
this far: a dead city
still alive in a rare song.
Listen to its teaching words
and to all the things it shows
yet again: the night, the return
to the borrowed room,
the book-stuffed basements
of Charing Cross Road
and the weather outside
so cold.
© Translated by Ana Hudson, 2012
in Poems from the Portuguese