NOTA: Para uma discussão do simbolismo deste poema inserido no conjunto d'Os Tempos ver a minha introdução a "O Encoberto".
English version
An introduction to the poem: The Bogey-beast of Portuguese Sea returns, again to symbolize the fear of the Unknown. Maybe it comes to instill in the hearts of men fear for the Fifth Empire (the new day that will last forever) but the monster no longer rules because its realm was unraveled by the Explorers of Old. So the monster, now reduced to serfdom, comes to seek his master that was once Lord of the Sea and is now sleeping (a reference to Portugal or King Sebastian who, in this sense, are equivalent). But Portugal who unraveled the Second World ( that in which we live- this is a reference to the Three Worlds of the Second Epistle of St. Peter) sleeps on and does not show signs of willing to show the way to the Fifth Empire (which Pessoa likens here to the Third World of St. Peter's Epistle). So the monster flies away again...
Before Dawn
The bogey-beast that lives at the end of the sea
Came from the darkness to seek
The dawning of the new day,
Of the new day that will last forever.
And said, "Who is he who sleeps remembering
That he has unraveled the Second World
But does not want to unveil the Third?".
And the sound of his turning in the dark
Makes the sleep bad, sad the dreaming.
Turned and flew away the monster-serf
That came here to seek his master,
That came here his master to call -
To call the One who lies in sleep
And who was once Lord of the Sea.
NOTA: Ver AQUI a tradução de 1997 do Prof. Mike Harland (que eu li antes de produzir a versão acima)
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