So much to do!
Books never read, letters never written,
Books never read, letters never written,
languages never learned,
love never given,
all and everything that can be forgotten.
Friends amid farewells,
crying children in a storm,
citizens signing forms, forms, forms...
signing forms until the end of the world.
And the birds behind shafts of rain,
and the dead in casks of camphor.
(And a single pretty song!)
So much to do!
And all we did was this.
And we never got to know ourselves
or what we were here for.
Original poem: 'Humildade', by CecÃlia Meireles
In: 'Antologia Poética', 1963