AUTHOR ROSALIENE BACCHUS


Reaching minds and hearts through storytelling


  • Home
  • Bio
  • Novel The Twisted Circle
  • Behind the Scenes Twisted Circle
    • Making of Novel
    • Creating the Setting
    • The Characters
    • Selected Research Resources
  • Novel Under the Tamarind Tree
  • Behind the Scenes Tamarind Novel
    • Making of Novel
    • The Characters
    • Creating the Setting
    • Selected Research Resources
  • Blog
  • Short Stories
    • The Jumbie Tree
    • The Ole Higue
    • Masacurraman: The Legendary River Monster
    • Rescued: An Easter Story
    • Ester's Letter to Santa
    • Sly Mongoose: Caught in the Jim Jones Web of Deceit
  • Poetry Corner
  • Featured Poets
    • 2025
    • 2024
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • Brazil
    • Caribbean
    • United States
  • Haiku Poems
    • On Being Human
    • On Climate Change
    • On Inequality
    • On Children
  • Contact

POEM "CERTAINTIES" BY BRAZILIAN POET MÁRIO QUINTANA



MÁRIO QUINTANA (1906-1994), a poet, writer, and translator, was born in Alegrete, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. In 1919, when he was thirteen years old, his father, a pharmacist, sent him to the state capital of Porto Alegre to study at the Military College. After leaving the college in 1924, eighteen-year-old Mário began working at the Globo Bookstore. Upon his father’s insistence, he returned home to work in the family’s drugstore. His father wanted him to become a doctor, not a poet.


Tragedy struck the family in 1926 with his mother’s death. His father died the following year. Quintana became an orphan at twenty-one years old.


In 1929, Quintana began working as a translator at O Estado do Rio Grande newspapers. His first poems were published in 1930 in the Revista Globo and the Correio do Povo magazines. When the newspapers temporarily closed operations during the 1930 Brazilian Revolution, he enlisted as a volunteer in the 7th Battalion of Porto Alegre and served for six months in Rio de Janeiro.


In 1940, Quintana published his first book of poetry, A Rua dos Cataventos / The Street of Windmills. Over the next fifty years, he published the following poetry collections:

  • Canções / Songs (1946)
  • Sapato florido / Flowered Shoe (1948)
  • O aprendiz de feiticeiro / The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1950)
  • Espelho mágico / Magic Mirror (1951)
  • Inéditos e esparsos / Unpublished and Sparse (1953)
  • Caderno H / Notebook H (1973)
  • Apontamentos de história sobrenatural / Supernatural History Annotations (1976)
  • Quintanares (1976)
  • A vaca e o hipogrifo / The Cow and the Hippogriff (1977)
  • Esconderijos do tempo / Hiding Places of Time (1980)
  • Baú de espantos / Chest of Terror (1986)
  • Da preguiça como método de trabalho / Laziness with Work Method (1987)
  • Preparativos de viagem / Travel Preparations (1987)
  • Porta giratória / Revolving Door (1988)
  • A cor do invisível / Color of the Invisible (1989)
  • Velório sem defunto / Wake Without the Deceased (1990)


In 1966, to commemorate his sixtieth birthday, Quintana published Antologia Poética / Poetic Anthology with sixty poems. The collection earned acclaim from the Brazilian Academy of Letters and won that year’s Brazilian Union of Writers’ Fernando Chinaglia Prize for best book of the year.


For his seventieth birthday in 1976, the government of the State of Rio Grande do Sul awarded him the Medal Negrinho do Pastoreio. Then, in 1980, he was awarded the Machado de Assis prize from the Brazilian Academy of Letters for his body of work.


Quintana died in Porto Alegre. He was eighty-seven years old.


Learn more about Mário Quintana at Brasil Escola:

https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/literatura/mario-quintanapoeta-ultrassensivel.htm


Photo Credit: Mário Quintana, 1966, Correio da Manhã (Posted on Wikipedia)




POEM "CERTAINTIES" BY MÁRIO QUINTANA



I don't want someone who dies of love for me...


I just need someone who lives for me, who wants to be with me, hugging me.


I don't demand that someone loves me like I love them, I just want them to love me, no matter with what intensity.

I don't assume that everyone I like likes me...


Even if I miss them, the important thing for me is to know that, at some moment, I was irreplaceable...

And that that moment will be unforgettable...


I just want my feelings to be valued.

I want to be able to always have a smile on my face, even when the situation is not very cheerful...

And that my smile could convey peace to those around me.


I want to be able to close my eyes and imagine someone...and to be absolutely sure that that someone also thinks of me when they close their eyes, that they miss me when I'm not around.


I would like to be sure that despite my denial and foolishness, someone values me for who I am, not for what I have...


That they see me as a complete human being, who abuses too much the good sentiments that life offers, who values what really matters, that is my feeling...and don't play with it.


And that that someone asks me to never change, so that I never grow, so that I may always be myself.


I don’t want to fight with the world, but if this should happen one day, I want to have enough strength to show the world that love exists…


That we are superior to hatred and rancor, and that there’s no victory without humility and peace.


I want to believe that even if I should fail today, tomorrow will be another day, and if I don’t give up on my dreams and goals, maybe I would be successful and completely happy.


That I never let my hope be shaken by pessimistic words...

That hope never seems to me like a NO that people insist on dressing up in green and understanding it as YES.


I want to have the freedom to say what I feel to someone, to be able to tell someone how special and important they are to me, without having to worry about others...

Without running the risk of hurting one or more people with this feeling.


I want, one day, to be able to tell others that nothing was in vain… That love exists, that it’s worthwhile to share friendship with people, that life is indeed beautiful, and that I always gave my best…and that it was worth it.



TRANSLATION BY ROSALIENE BACCHUS



POEMA "CERTEZAS" POR MÁRIO QUINTANA



Não quero alguém que morra de amor por mim...

Só preciso de alguém que viva por mim, que queira estar junto de mim, me abraçando.


Não exijo que esse alguém me ame como eu o amo, quero apenas que me ame, não me importando com que intensidade.

Não tenho a pretensão de que todas as pessoas que gosto, gostem de mim...


Nem que eu faça a falta que elas me fazem, o importante pra mim é saber que eu, em algum momento, fui insubstituível...

E que esse momento será inesquecível...


Só quero que meu sentimento seja valorizado.

Quero sempre poder ter um sorriso estampando em meu rosto, mesmo quando a situação não for muito alegre...

E que esse meu sorriso consiga transmitir paz para os que estiverem ao meu redor.


Quero poder fechar meus olhos e imaginar alguém...e poder ter a absoluta certeza de que esse alguém também pensa em mim quando fecha os olhos, que faço falta quando não estou por perto.


Queria ter a certeza de que apesar de minhas renúncias e loucuras, alguém me valoriza pelo que sou, não pelo que tenho...


Que me veja como um ser humano completo, que abusa demais dos bons sentimentos que a vida lhe proporciona, que dê valor ao que realmente importa, que é meu sentimento...e não brinque com ele.


E que esse alguém me peça para que eu nunca mude, para que eu nunca cresça, para que eu seja sempre eu mesmo.


Não quero brigar com o mundo, mas se um dia isso acontecer, quero ter forças suficientes para mostrar a ele que o amor existe...

Que ele é superior ao ódio e ao rancor, e que não existe vitória sem humildade e paz.


Quero poder acreditar que mesmo se hoje eu fracassar, amanhã será outro dia, e se eu não desistir dos meus sonhos e propósitos, talvez obterei êxito e serei plenamente feliz.

Que eu nunca deixe minha esperança ser abalada por palavras pessimistas...

Que a esperança nunca me pareça um NÃO que a gente teima em maquiá-lo de verde e entendê-lo como SIM.


Quero poder ter a liberdade de dizer o que sinto a uma pessoa, de poder dizer a alguém o quanto ele é especial e importante pra mim, sem ter de me preocupar com terceiros...

Sem correr o risco de ferir uma ou mais pessoas com esse sentimento.


Quero, um dia, poder dizer às pessoas que nada foi em vão...

Que o amor existe, que vale a pena se doar às amizades a às pessoas, que a vida é bela sim, e que eu sempre dei o melhor de mim... e que valeu a pena.


SOURCE: Alma de Poeta Blogspot. Poetry Collection and Date of Publication unknown. Published in Brazil.