A Fir, a Pining Palm

A fir standing alone
On a bare boreal height
Dozes, wrapped in a warm
Shroud of ice and snow,

Dreaming of a palm far
In the East, itself pining
Alone in silence at the edge
Of a sun-baked cliff.

After Heinrich Heine

Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam
Im Norden auf kahler Höh’,
Ihn schläfert; mit weißer Decke
Umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee.

Er träumt von einer Palme,
Die fern in Morgenland
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand.

The Strangest of all Strangeness

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 The strangest of all strangeness,
more then dreamed by any poet,
by any thinker thought up,
is that things are just what they seem.
Nothing to understand about them.

After Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa)

É mais estranho do que todas as estranhezas
E do que os sonhos de todos os poetas
E os pensamentos de todos os filósofos,
Que as cousas sejam realmente o que parecem ser
E não haja nada que compreender.