Alberto Caeiro
WHEN SPRING comes,
If I've already died,
The flowers will bloom in the same way
And the trees won't be less green than they were last Spring.
Reality doesn't need me.I feel incredibly happy
When I think my death has absolutely no importance.If I knew I was going to die tomorrow,
And Spring came the day after tomorrow,
I would die peacefully, because it came the day after tomorrow.
If that's its time, when else should it come?
I like it that everything is real and everything is right;
And I like that it would be like this even if I didn't like it.
And so, if I die now, I die peacefully
Because everything is real and everything is right.They can pray in Latin over my coffin if they want to.
It's alright with me if they dance and sing all around it.
I don't have any preferences about when I won't even be able to have preferences.
What comes, when it comes, will be what it is.(11/7/1915)
[trans. Chris Daniels & Dana Stevens]
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