Be as it is - anything
serene, exempted, loyal.
Flower that fulfils itself
with no query.
Wave that makes an effort
out of uninterested exercise.
Moon that equally encases
embraced lovers
and the soldiers now cold.
Also be like this night air:
whispering with silences,
brimming with births and petals.
Like the held-up rock,
sustaining its destiny late.
And the cloud, light and lovely,
living without never coming to be.
Like the cicada burning itself in music,
like the camel chewing on its long solitude,
like the bird that searches for the end of the world,
like the bull that innocently moves towards death.
Be thus, anything
serene, exempted, loyal.
Not like the rest of men.
Original poem: 'Sugestão', by CecÃlia Meireles
In: 'Mar Absoluto e Outros Poemas', 1945