If I would die tomorrow, I would see at least
My grieving sister would come close my eyes;
My mother would perish from the longing
If I would die tomorrow!
What glories I foresee in my future!
That new dawn of power and that mid-morning!
I would lose in tears those rewards
If I would die tomorrow!
What sun! what blue sky! what a tranquil dawn
Awakens with its crazy nature!
It would not batter me with all this love inside my breast
If I would die tomorrow!
But this pain of life that devours
The agony from glory, the aching diligence…
The sorrow in my breast would fall mute
If I would die tomorrow!
——
Manuel Antônio Álvares de Azevedo (1831-1852) was a Romantic poet, short story writer, playwright and essayist.