My grandmother learned this by heart in school and probably recited it in public.
(Found among our papers in Waltham, randomly, 5-31-1983)
(Found among our papers in Waltham, randomly, 5-31-1983)
O Desterrado/The Exile
Como sao brancas as flores/ How white are the flowers
Deste verde laranjal/ Of this green orange grove
e doce a sua fragrancia/Its fragrance is sweet
como a deste roseiral/Just like the rose garden
Mas tem mais suave aroma as rosas de Portugal.
But the roses of Portugal have a better soft fragrance
O solo destas florestas/The soil of the forests
o lerilhante e ouro evcerra/Have the spark/shining and gold
sao imensos estes rios/These rivers are immense
imensos o vale e a serra/And so are the vales and the hill
porem nao tem a befasa dos campos da minha terra-
but they don't have the beauty of the fields of my homeland.
These stars are more beautiful?
Their starlight is more beautiful
But they sparkled in the sky of exile
I don't love them the same way
Oh stars of my motherland
Wish I had your bright light
Of loves inebriated
The dove sights here
With these strong perfumes
Everything loves and laughs
But, oh! More charm has the land where I was born
There, the moon was prettier
More for the eyes were the flowers
The spring nights
Are there for lovers
And in the woods of the salgueiros*
There are sweet singers
Oh! No, not as pretty is the place
Of any sorry forced retreat
Where everything, all the time
Tells me I'm outcast
No, there is not prettier lands
Than that of my homeland.
===
Notes
*Salgeros- a tree that grows close to the ocean
Both the title and the theme are VERY common in the Portuguese culture.
A brief Google search leads to the following video is of a statue with the same name, sculpted by Antonio Soares Dos Reis in 1872:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Bd-8mhW5o
