My land has palms,
Where the Thrush bird sings;
The birds, that tweet their chirping here,
Do not sing like those in my homeland.
Our expanse has more stars,
Our meadows have more buds,
Our forests have more life,
Our existence, more loves.
In confrontations with the self, alone at night,
More pleasure finds me there;
My land has palms,
Where the Thrush bird sings.
My homeland has a perfect beauty,
That does not exist in exile;
In confrontations with the self — alone, at night —
More pleasure finds me there;
My land has palms,
Where the Thrush bird sings.
The mythic übermensch will not allow my death,
Til I perchance return there;
Til I drink in its perfect beauty
Which does not exist here;
Until I behold the palm trees,
Where the Thrush bird sings.
——
Antônio Gonçalves Dias (1823-1864) was a Romantic poet, playwright, ethnographer, lawyer, linguist, and became the National Poet of Brazil. This poem Canção do exílio is arguably the most well-known poem of Brazilian literature.