"Ao meu maior amigo", de Alexander Search

Quando eu morrer, eu sei, tu escreverás
Triste soneto à morte prematura;
Dirás que a vida cansa em amargura
E, pálido e frio, tu me cantarás.

Nas quadras, reflectido se lerá
De como, vã e breve, a vida expira
E como em terra funda, dura e fria,
A vida, má ou boa, acabará.

A seguir, nos tercetos, tu dirás
Que a morte é mistério, tudo fugaz,
Verdadeira, talvez, a vida além.

Por fim porás a data, assinarás.
E, relido o soneto, ficarás
Contente por tê-lo escrito bem.

(in Poesia de Alexander Search; trad. Luísa Freire)

"To my dearest friend", de Alexander Search

When I am dead you'll write - I know you will -
A thoughtful sonnet on my early death,
In which, stating that life but wearieth,
You'll notice how I lie pale, cold, and still.

This in the quatrains, which likewise you'll fill
With some reflections on how soon goes breath
And how the cold and heavy earth beneath
There is an end to living, good or ill.

After this, in the tercets, you will say
That death's a mystery, that nought doth stay,
Perhaps that immortality is true.

Then you will sign and put the date to it.
And, having read again the sonnet, you
Will be content, seeing it is well writ.

(in Poesia de Alexander Search)

"Death in life / Morte em vida", de Alexander Search

Another day is past, and while it past,
What have I pondered or conceived or read?
Nothing! Another day has gone to waste.
Nothing! Each hour as it is born is dead.

I have done nothing. Time from me has fled,
And unto Beauty not a statue raised!
By thought's firm power no creed nor lie debased
By this young useless and wearied.

Is it my lot then ever to remain
Like a grain of sand upon the beach,
A thing at will of wind, at will of sea?

Alas, that aught that wishes and has pain,
Because e'er fall'n from what its power should reach
Less than a thing inanimate should be!

* * *

Um dia mais passou e ao passar
Que pensei ou li, que foi criado?
Nada! Outro dia passou desperdiçado!
Cada hora já morta ao despontar!

Nada fiz. O tempo me fugiu
E à beleza nem uma estátua ergui!
Na mente firme nem credo ou sonho vi
E a alma inútil em vão se consumiu.

Então me caberá sempre ficar
Qual grão de areia na praia pousado,
Coisa sujeita ao vento, entregue ao mar?

Ah, esse algo a sofrer e a desejar,
Inda menos que um ser inanimado
Sempre aquém do que podia alcançar!

(in Poesia de Alexander Search)