A RIVER WITHOUT END

A RIVER WITHOUT END

                                                        Poem of José Julio de Azevedo

                                                        English version of Wesley Emmerick Werner

 A river without end flows throughout the world

always coming from where it left.

Plodding or surfing along its bed

the fresh waters of a turbulent journey

that never ends either falling from a cliff

or drowning in the depths of the sea.

A river without end flows throughout the world.

Its words are murmurs on the rocks

washed on foam and clad with glow

as the fisherman rows his paddle fast

over the shining mirror of the waters.

A river without end flows throughout the world

of dark forests and gentle valleys,

under the bridges, along the slums,

in the wheat fields, through the big cities,

always flowing, always glowing.

Balancing between the pull of the earth

and the gravity of the moonlit night.

 A river without end flows throughout the world

quenching the thirst of children and birds,

machines, lakes with hydroelectric plants,

cornfields, orchards and bathhouses,

wild beasts of the jungles,

aimless wanderers and desert Bedouins.

A river without end flows throughout the world,

sometimes silent and sometimes falling

thunderously as the joy of a million men.

A river without end flows throughout the world,

a river that slumbers on the layers of groundwater,

frozen in the polar caps and in the timeless ice

of the Alps, the Andes and the Himalayas,

made a prisoner on the summit of Everest

and married to the ancient snow of Kilimanjaro.

A river without end that weeps at Fukushima.

Amazon immeasurable! This river drenches

the largest forest in the whole world

and then follows in its endless journey.

 Its drops form the oceans,

shining in all teardrops

crying under the clouds

trying to stay alive

even if it’s only a hope

A river without end flows throughout the world,

as it floats up to heaven to give itself up entirely

coming down on all alike without prejudice.

Thunderstorms, lightning, gentle rains.

Its dwelling is in the cisterns and in the wells,

in the belly of the giant whales,

in the springs that flow from the mountain sides

and in the streams where the little Indians play.

 Its home is in the mothers’ milk and

in the cup of cold water offered at the door.

It flows throughout the world,

This endless river, created for everyone out there,

groves, swarms, animals and tribes.

Celebrated in all languages,

It flows in everlasting grace

to make life blossom

from the wet Andes slopes

to the dryness of the Atacama.

A gift for all seasons of life.

Generous fountainhead to a sweet,

ferocious and heroic Human race!

 (In March 2014)

Extinction of the Seven Falls National Park - Parana / Brazil - Disappeared in 1982 to make way for the lake of the hydroelectric plant of Itaipu, between Brazil and Paraguay.