LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI (1919)

O mundo é um ótimo lugar

                                               pra se nascer
se não te importa que a felicidade
                                      nem sempre tenha
                                                                  muita graça
         se não te importa um quê de inferno
                                      de quando em quando
                   justo quando tudo vai bem
                            pois nem mesmo nos céus
                   se canta o
                                               tempo todo
 
         O mundo é um ótimo lugar
                                               pra se nascer
se não te importa que alguns morram
                                                        o tempo todo
                   ou sofram só de fome
                                               parte do tempo
                   o que não é tão mau assim
                                               se não é com você

Ah o mundo é um ótimo lugar

                            pra se nascer
         se não te importam
                            algumas mentes mortas
                   nos postos mais altos
                                      ou uma bomba ou duas
                                      de quando em quando
                                               nas suas caras pasmas
         ou tais outras inconveniências
                                      que vitimam a nossa
                            sociedade Marca Registrada
                                      com a distinção de seus homens
                   e seus homens de extinção
                                      e seus padres
                            e outros patrulheiros
                                      e suas várias segregações
         e investigações parlamentares
                                      e outras prisões
                            de ventre que nosso torpe
                                               corpo herda

         Sim o mundo é o melhor dos lugares

                                      para tantas coisas como
                   encenar diversão
                                      e encenar amor
e encenar tristeza
                   e cantar baixarias e se inspirar
         e dar umas voltas
                                      olhando de tudo
                                                        e cheirando flores
         e cutucando estátuas
                                      e até pensando
                                                        e beijando as pessoas e
                   fazendo filhos e usando calças
                                                                  e acenando chapéus e
                                               dançando
                            e nadando nos rios durante
                                      piqueniques
                                               no meio do verão
                   e no sentido amplo
                                               “vivendo até o fundo”
 
         Sim
                   mas bem no meio disso chega
                                                        então sorrindo o
                                              
                                               agente funerário

 

         Tradução de Nelson Ascher

 

Ferlinghetti em frente à City Lights, sua livraria em San Francisco

 

The world is a beautiful place

                                                     to be born into
 if you don't mind happiness
                                             not always being
                                                                        so very much fun
        if you don't mind a touch of hell
                                                        now and then
                  just when everything is fine
                                                              because even in heaven
                                   they don't sing
                                                       all the time
 
             The world is a beautiful place
                                                           to be born into
       if you don't mind some people dying
                                                                  all the time
                          or maybe only starving
                                                              some of the time
                    which isn't half so bad                                 
                                                       if it isn't you
 
     Oh the world is a beautiful place
                                                          to be born into
                if you don't much mind
                                                     a few dead minds
                             in the higher places
                                                            or a bomb or two
                                   now and then
                                                        in your upturned faces
                 or such other improprieties
                                                           as our Name Brand society
                                           is prey to
                                                         with its men of distinction
                       and its men of extinction
                                                             and its priests
                                   and other patrolmen
                                                                   and its various segregations
                   and congressional investigations
                                                                       and other constipations
                                 that our fool flesh
                                                                is heir to
 
 
    Yes the world is the best place of all
                                                              for a lot of such things as
          making the fun scene
                                               and making the love scene
 and making the sad scene
                                      and singing low songs and having inspirations
      and walking around
                                     looking at everything
                                                                      and smelling flowers
      and goosing statues
                                     and even thinking
                                                                 and kissing people and
           making babies and wearing pants
                                                              and waving hats and
                                          dancing
                                                     and going swimming in rivers
                                on picnics
                                        in the middle of the summer
             and just generally
                                          'living it up'

    Yes

               but then right in the middle of it
                                                     comes the smiling
 
                                           mortician

Lawrence Ferlinghetti.  Vida sem fim: as minhas melhores poesias.  Trad. Nelson Ascher e outros.  SP: Brasiliense, 1984.