As minhas lembranças de Portugal

(Isso deve estar a minha primeira entrada totalmente em português... Não sei, como eu consigo, ah!)

Portugal é conhecido por seus lembranças de verdadeiramente bom gosto. Aqui queria mostrar alguns exemplos delas:

A mala de cortiça (em Portugal quase tudo se faz de cortiça, não só as rolhas das garrafas de vinho!) com os símbolos de Portugal no seu desenho:

- O Coração de Viana

- Guitarra portuguesa

- Sardinha

- Motivo de azulejos portugueses

Ímãs para frigorífico: o significado deste proverbio é: „If you want joy, sow and create” (inglês) „Jeśli chcesz radości, zasiewaj i twórz” (polonês).

O lenço azul (como disse uma vendedora duma loja competitiva, „made in China”, mas não me importa … simplesmente gostei da sua cor e desenho!) Este lenço, envolvido ao redor dos meus braços, deixa-me sentir o calor e proximidade do Portugal, nos dias nublados e tristes como hoje.

Até breve!

"Amar pelos dois" traduzido em Polaco

Boa noite!

Today's blog post was meant to be on an entirely different topic, but suddenly I found something in the Web I had the urgency to fix immediately :-)

Note: I am a total autodidact when it comes to learning Portuguese; I haven't mastered the language yet, but I still hope to. One of the ways I am trying to learn is through poetic translations. As I love rhyming in Polish, I often try to follow the original rhythms and rhymes of the poem or lyrics of a song (I already did it with German texts, for example, partly for the sake of my book on Beethoven).

So, back to the subject: earlier this year, on May 13 a sensitive, good-looking Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision contest and the hearts of many music lovers with his song Amar pelos dois.

For the first time ever I, as a musician, was not angry with the verdict. And not just because it was Portugal. It remains a matter of faith whether Salvador's victory, which coincided with the centenary of Apparitions in Fatima, was a result of some intervention of supernatural forces - as some devout Catholics spontaneously claimed.

Earlier today, I found a Polish cover version of this song (HERE). Decently performed, aiming at preserving the original style and song meaning. BUT - the lyrics. Um. It is not easy to translate poetic and phonological quality of the Portuguese language into Polish, which seems waaaay less comfortable for singing.

Still, I could not help sitting down with a pencil in order to create my own alternative version, which goes as follows (not a literal, but a more poetic one which - in my view - fits the melody better). Please enjoy reading in Polish now!

Gdy ktoś spyta Cię
Kim byłem - Ty wiedz
Że kochać Cię - to był mój los

Nim byłaś Ty
Dłużyły się dni
I pustka dręczyła co noc

Meu bem [just had to keep it!]
Usłysz me wołanie
Pragnę, byś kochanie
Znowu chciała ze mną być

Ja wiem
Ty się miłości boisz
Lecz kiedyś razem z moim
Twoje serce zacznie bić

Bo serce Twe wie
Co boleść i łzy
I lęka się wciąż
Nie chce zaufać mi

Więc, wciąż nie wiedząc
Co los przyniesie nam
Za dwoje nas dziś
Będę kochać ja sam!

(Copyright: Małgorzata Grajter)

Original Portuguese text below:

Se um dia alguém, perguntar por mim
Diz que vivi para te amar
Antes de ti, só existi
Cansado e sem nada para dar

Meu bem, ouve as minhas preces
Peço que regresses, que me voltes a querer
Eu sei, que não se ama sozinho
Talvez devagarinho, possas voltar a aprender

Meu bem, ouve as minhas preces
Peço que regresses, que me voltes a querer
Eu sei, que não se ama sozinho
Talvez devagarinho, possas voltar a aprender

Se o teu coração não quiser ceder
Não sentir paixão, não quiser sofrer
Sem fazer planos do que virá depois
O meu coração, pode amar pelos dois.

Até logo!

As Pérolas de Sabedoria nos murais de Portugal (e Espanha)

Bom dia!
No, I will not start with beautiful views from Portugal; they are yet to come.

I will start with what I guess we all hate: vandalism. I hate it too. But if suddenly some of the writings on the walls carry some message, they are even worth portraying. The two below are from Coimbra - the former capital of Portugal, a university town:

This one says: 'The way to happiness is to live in the present', Polish: Drogą do szczęścia jest życie chwilą teraźniejszą.

Here is another one, meaning: 'Happiness is our natural state'; Polish: Szczęście jest naszym naturalnym stanem.

Both were so true to me, as our guide took us to Coimbra for a short walk on the way from Porto to Fatima, which was not included in the schedule. The experience of happiness resulting from being in this kind of present was a very natural state indeed! And the murals corresponded with my mood so well.

O último aqui, the last of the series is in Castellano Spanish. This photo was made in the toilet near the bus station in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. It says: Life is not a feast we imagined, but now that we are here... let's dance! (Polish: Życie nie jest ucztą, jaką sobie wyobrażaliśmy, ale skoro już tu jesteśmy... tańczmy, bawmy się!). As the words were presumably written by pilgrims of Santiago, it makes me wonder: what did they have in mind? :-)

Até a proxima entrada!

Sejam bem-vindos no meu blog!

Welcome, Readers!

The idea of this blog was born upon my return from my beloved country, Portugal, which was the main destination of a pilgrimage tour on the occasion of the Centenary of Apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima. I decided that my thoughts and impressions from that trip should not wither away.

Why Portugal?
The answer is complex and I shall elaborate on that later, however there is a key.

O caminho para o coração de um homem é pelo estômago - diz uma dica popular... e o caminho para o coração de uma mulher é pelas palavras.
Since I am a woman, and women are particularly sensitive to words - to their sound and meaning - my love for Portugal started with its language. Portugal seduced me with her words, plain and simple. Not being able to resist its beauty, I started learning Portuguese on my own. I like to say Portuguese language is beautiful as Latin (as in the poem of Olavo Bilac) and melodious as Russian.

Língua Portuguesa (Olavo Bilac)

Última flor do Lácio, inculta e bela,
És, a um tempo, esplendor e sepultura:
Ouro nativo, que na ganga impura
A bruta mina entre os cascalhos vela…
Tuba de alto clangor, lira singela,
Que tens o trom e o silvo da procela,
E o arrolo da saudade e da ternura!
De virgens selvas e de oceano largo!
Amo-te, ó rude e doloroso idioma,
E em que Camões chorou, no exílio amargo,
O gênio sem ventura e o amor sem brilho!
Amo-te assim, desconhecida e obscura.
Amo o teu viço agreste e o teu aromaem
que da voz materna ouvi: “meu filho!”,

Further, since I am a musician, Portugal seduced me with her music. Not only fado, but also lusophone music from its former colonies.All in all, my love for Portugal had started years before I even had a chance to go and see the land where such a beautiful language is spoken and such beautiful music is played. The country itself did not disappoint me; I fell in love with it equally.

I am of Polish nationality and my native language is polski. However, since I am open to a more international community, I decided to write mostly in English and Portuguese (as much as the knowledge of the latter allows me to do so). I will be very happy to receive feedback from fans of Portugal and Portuguese-speaking people from any corner of the world; let us start today.

Sejam bem-vindos!