[1471] In the Middle of the Road
Guest poem submitted by Nisha Pillai, <nishaspillai@>:
| In the Middle of the Road |
In the middle of the road there was a stone
there was a stone in the middle of the road
there was a stone
in the middle of the road there was a stone.
Never should I forget this event
in the life of my fatigued retinas.
Never should I forget that in the middle of the road
there was a stone
there was a stone in the middle of the road
in the middle of the road there was a stone.
-- Carlos Drummond de Andrade
|
Translated by Elizabeth Bishop.
I came across this poem recently because a colleague recommended it to
me. It sounds beautiful in the original Portuguese, much better than the
English version, says my Brazilian friend. Since the English version is
the only one I understand, who am I to argue? :-)
The poem is simplicity itself. I choose to think that it symbolizes an
event that altered the course of the poet's life, but that's just me.
Here it is in Portuguese:
"No meio do caminho"
No meio do caminho tinha uma pedra
tinha uma pedra no meio do caminho
tinha uma pedra
no meio do caminho tinha uma pedra
Nunca me esquecerei d=EAsse acontecimento
na vida de minhas retinas t=E3o fatigadas.
Nunca me esquecerei que no meio do caminho
tinha uma pedra
tinha uma pedra no meio do caminho
no meio do caminho tinha uma pedra.
-- Carlos Drummond de Andrade
[Biography]
Andrade, Carlos Drummond de, 1902-87, Brazilian poet. The son of
landowners, he worked as a journalist before earning (1925) a degree in
pharmacology. In 1928 Andrade became a civil servant while working as a
newspaper editor. His first volume of poems, Alguma poesia [some poetry]
(1930), exhibited many characteristics of Brazilian modernism. Andrade
is considered the major Brazilian poet of his time; his works include
Poesias [poems] (1942), A rosa do povo [the people's rose] (1945), Claro
enigma [clear enigma] (1951), A vida passada a limpo [life in a new
copy] (1959), and As impurezas do branco [the impurities of white]
(1973). He also wrote essays and award-winning translations of European
writers.
Nisha.
[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1471.html
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From: "Virani, Salima" <svirani@>
I confess my total ignorance here - I don't "get" it. Can someone
please explain to me the significance of the repetition? Has the writer
deliberately omitted punctuations?
Thanks in advance,
Salima (with a stone in her head!)
From: "lpaganin" <lpaganin@>
I've never understood this poem, which Bishop translates in her Complete
Poems. Andrade, perhaps the most famous Brazilian poet, writes beautiful,
accessible poems, usually. But what on Earth does he intend to do here? And
why would Bishop--a poet who increasingly replaced opacity with clear
meaning--choose this poem, among all of Andrade's work, to tranlsate?
The poem strikes me as some sort of arch modernist experiment. Can any
Andrade fans lend some insight? After being perplexed by this one for so
long, I'd enjoy watching its meaning appear like a comet in murk.
(Incidentally, check out Bishop's "Song for the Rainy Season," a poem
included on this site. Her description of the Brazilian subtropics is
rapturous.)
Dustin Smith
From: "Fellippe Heitor" <fellippepip@>
We'll obviously never know exactly what any poet wanted to say unless
he/she would have written a description of his text. Some people believe
that the "stone" in "the middle of the road" means World War II in the
middle of the 20th century...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fellippe C. Heitor
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"Se voc=EA quer a vida em jogo,
eu quero é ser feliz!" - Sábios Tribalistas
From: "Wanda Reisel" <wanda@>
In the middle of the road:
This happens to be one of my favourite poems. Drummond de Andrade is a
great poet.
In my bookversion (in dutch and portuguese) there the poem is set to
music by Francisco Mignone to be sung fot the first time by the female
singer Nair Duarte Nunes on the 22nd of august 1938
The poem is composed as a nursery rhyme it seems, but the fatigued eyes
make it a rhyme for older people, who have seen much more than a child.
In my vision it is about life in a nutshell: there is a road and there
is always a smaller or bigger stone on the way....
the one in your shoe or the one on your or anothermans head.
It is sublime in its simplicity which evokes life and the world, because
it is open en closed alike.
mijn website http://wanda.reisel.net
From: Maraiba Christu <zxe@>
I have always loved this poem. I had not heard about the reference to
WW2. For me it is a startling expression of the immediacy of
experience. One stone, so simple, the stone like bare bones; the stone
as a symbol of the enduring stuff of earth we live on, of life itself
(we are minerals and water). To encounter it like that, one stone in the
middle of the road, consciousness singing like a stone. A stone in the
middle of the road (unavoidable, a full encounter). Profoundly
meaningful, beautiful in ways too mysterious to explain. How would we
express such things without poetry?
That's my take anyway.
From: "Diogo m.k." <joronoko@>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">Its a beautiful põem tough redunt.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">The most accepted interpretation, here, of this poem is the strugles and the life´s itself. Who never stumbled in a stone (problem) in life or many times.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">½ me if ya wanna discuss some ideas.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">Joronoko@</SPAN><o:p></o:p></P></DIV></div></html>