Poem Translation: Navigator by Paulo César Pinheiro

A restless navigator is my heart...

Paulo César Pinheiro

Although I know it’s a sweeping generalization to make, I think it is true to say that Brazilians take poetry and musical lyric writing more seriously than Americans do. That’s not to say that poets or lyricists reach pop star status…that sort of thing, alas, seems to be reserved for Urdu speakers.

Paulo César Pinheiro, born 1949 in Rio de Janeiro, is a poet-lyricist. His English-language Wikipedia article describes him as “one of the best poets of Popular Brazilian Music”, which phrasing is a dead giveaway that the article is translated straight from Portuguese, or written by a Brazilian. It’s hard to imagine a native English speaker using the phrase “poet of music” naturally.

All this to say, the poem below was put to music by the Brazilian composer Guinga, and my favorite version is performed by vocalist Mônica Salmaso. Here’s a video link which is, unfortunately, just audio. The guitar is, I believe, Guinga himself.

The music has a bit of a Portuguese fado feel to it, which makes sense with the navigator theme (think Portuguese caravels), the gull or albatross wandering the sea, the reference to Lisbon. What better way for a Brazilian to express restlessness than to speak of an oceanic gap crossed five hundred years ago, from whose bourn there can never be any return?

I have attempted to preserve not only Pinheiro’s rhymes, but all his play, including throwing ardente, gente, and continente into one beautiful tripping line. If he ever sees this, I hope he will know that quay rhymes with sea.

Navigator
(a translation of Navegador, by poet and lyricist Paulo César Pinheiro; translation Joffre Swait)

A restless navigator is my heart,
Which sallies from the quay
Directionless to sea.

In search of emotion and gale,
At sail just to sail
Loose in the green immensity
Of a sargasso sea.

Distant coast!
My lover’s breast
Is a navigator adrift.

A canoe! Passion is a war-canoe
With my heart at the prow, in service to the crown
Of my soul, which is Lisbon Town.

Navigator!
O navigator, who sails the sea in vain,
Leaving behind the solitude of the quay,
Sailing just to sail is a dream to attain
Within the darkness of the sea.

For love ardent the people went to the continent that beckons.
The canoe plunges through the sea of life in vain,
Against the time which from us drains,
Wishing for good lands on which to alight,
Like a bird in flight, who navigates as he reckons.

Conquistador! Navigator!
Passion is a war-canoe
With my heart at the prow, in service to the crown
Of my soul, which is Lisbon Town.