Elisabeth Bishop, grande poeta

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three beloved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) a disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1079)


Com uma vida aventurosa e interessante (muito me espanta que ainda não tenha dado filme), os poemas da americana Elisabeth Bishop mal escondem as suas dificuldades como mulher, como lésbica, como órfã, como viajante sem raízes, ou asmática frequentemente hospitalizada, sofrendo de depressão e por vezes alcoolismo. Era uma grande poeta.

"Não estou interessada num trabalho em larga escala, há algo que não necessita de ser grande para ser bom».
É uma grande poeta.