If I obeyed reason

S’obedecera a rezam, Duarte de Resende

 

S’obedecera a rezam

e resestira a vontade,

eu vivera em liberdade

e não tivera paixam,

 

Mas quando já quis olhar

s’em algum erro caíra,

achei ser tudo mentira

s’a isto chamam errar:

 

que seguir sempre razam

e nam mil vezes vontade,

é negar sensualidade,

cujo é o coração.

If I obeyed reason, translation Rita Faria

 

If I obeyed reason

And if I resisted desire

I would live in freedom

And passion I would not require

 

But when I wished to see

if by any chance I had erred

I found it all to be deceit

to this call err if you prefer:

 

that to always follow reason

and not a thousand times desire

is to deny the sensuality,

in which the heart lives entire.

Duarte de Resende was first cousin of Garcia de Resende, hence the shared surname and place of origin, Évora. He travelled and was supervisor (feitor) of the Island of Ternate, on the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Upon his return to Portugal, Duarte became a prolific translator of Cicero. 

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Rita Faria is a professor at the Catholic University of Portugal. She doesn’t know how to do anything else apart from reading and writing and wants to do nothing else apart from reading and writing. Besides this, she enjoys horror films, vampires, ghosts and zombies in general and thinks the Portuguese language is the most fun in the whole world.