Musings/Träumereien/Devaneios

"Folhas Caídas e Flores sem Fruto" = Fallen Leaves and Fruitless Flowers"

At school I’ve learned a lot of things: running in the hallway, eating crap, dangling pencils from my nose, pop my gum, fake a burp, paraphrase and summarize. Once in a while I also got acquainted with some poetry. "Barca Bela" was one of those poems I used to know by heart. Not anymore. Let me say straight away that I learned poems at school at a very young age. When I was at the primary school we did at least a poem a week from the very beginning. That was the way for me to know a lot of Portuguese poetry. It was nice to get myself reacquainted now with this poem and with a lot of Garrett's poetry as well (Along the years Garrett's poetry was never one of my favourites). I still remember my first contact with poetry at school. I had to learn by heart one of the verses from this poem. After toiling for some time, I got to recite it in class. I remember the teacher asking me what it meant, and I also remember what I said: "Mas professora, a poesia não significa nada." ("But teacher, poetry doesn't mean a thing").

Read on, if you feel so inclined.