Sofia de Mello Bryner Andreson ‘Await Me’ – A Translation

On beaches that are the white faces of the beloved dead
I will let your name lose itself repeatedly

But await me:
For however long the journey
I’ll return.

This series of poems are original translations of a sequence by Sophia de Mello which begins with, ‘Our beaches’ (first stanza) and ends with ‘Our parting is more obvious with each day’ (last stanza). They are not a related sequence; they simply appear one after the other, but for this reason and their impact when read together, I chose to translate them almost as a whole. I definitely recommend that they are also read and enjoyed as individual poems.

There’s something like magic in tiny, well-formed poems.

Read more of my translation of Sophia de Mello’s collection Coral.