O Homem; As Viagens
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
The Man; The Travels
The man, creature of the earth so small
Gets bored on earth
Place of much misery and little fun,
Builds a rocket, a capsule, a module
Heads to the moon
Descends cautiously on the moon
Steps on the moon
Plants a flag on the moon
Experiences the moon
Colonizes the moon
Civilizes the moon
Humanizes the moon.
Humanized moon: so similar to earth.
The man gets bored on the moon.
Let's go to Mars - commands his machines.
They obey, the man lands on Mars
Steps on Mars
Experiences
Colonizes
Civilizes
Humanizes Mars with skill and art.
Humanized Mars, what a square place.
Shall we go elsewhere?
Of course - says the sophisticated and docile
Machine.
Let's go to Venus.
The man sets foot on Venus,
Sees what's seen - is this it?
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto.
The man's mind will be blown if he doesn't go to Jupiter
To proclaim justice along with injustice
To repeat the pit
To repeat the restless
Repetoire.
Other planets remain for other colonies.
The whole space becomes down-to-earth.
The man reaches the sun or takes a turn
Just to see?
Don't you see that he invents
Unwearable clothes to live in the sun.
He sets foot and:
But how boring is the sun, a tamed
False Spanish bull.
Other systems remain outside
The solar system to col-
Onize.
After all are done
The only thing left for man
(is he equipped?)
The extremely difficult and dangerous journey
From himself to himself:
To set foot on the ground
Of his heart
Experience
Colonize
Civilize
Humanize
The man
Discovering in his own unexplored depths
The eternal, unsuspected joy
Of co-existing.
