This Christmas season, I just wanted to share some gratitude—and this poem by one of my favorite poets, Vinicius de Moraes. That’s the same artist who wrote the original lyrics to Garota de Ipanema, a jazz standard with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim.
“For this hour, may our hearts let themselves go, grave and simple”—how beautifully put, don’t you think?
Vinicius de Moraes
Poema de Natal
For this we were made:
To remember and to be remembered
To weep and to make weep
To bury our dead –
For this we have arms long for the goodbyes
Hands to scoop up what was given
Fingers to dig into the earth.
This is what our life shall be like:
An afternoon always at forgetting
A star going out in the darkness
A pathway between two graves –
That is why we need to keep vigil
Speak low, tread lightly, watch
The night asleep in silence.
There is not much to say:
A song over a cradle
A verse of love, perhaps
A prayer for who goes away –
But may this hour not forget
And for it may our hearts
Let themselves go, grave and simple.
Because for this we were made:
For the hope in the miracle
For taking part in poetry
For seeing the face of death –
Suddenly we wait no more…
Tonight is young; from death, we only
Are born, immensely.
[From: Vinicius de Moraes. 2003. Nova Antologia Poética. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, pp. 92-93. Translated by Carolyn at
]
From the author of the Girl from Ipanema