Symbols? I’m sick of symbols...

The Dark Side, originally uploaded by DjSousa.

Symbols? I’m sick of symbols...
Some people tell me that everything is symbols.
They’re telling me nothing.

What symbols? Dreams...
Let the sun be a symbol, fine...
Let the moon be a symbol, fine...
Let the earth be a symbol, fine...
But who notices the sun except when the rain stops
And it breaks through the clouds and points behind its back
To the blue of the sky?
And who notices the moon except to admire
Not it but the beautiful light it radiates?
And who notices the very earth we tread?
We say earth and think of fields, trees and hills,
Unwittingly diminishing it,
For the sea is also earth.

(…)

Symbols? I’m sick of symbols... - Álvaro de Campos

Translation: 1998, Richard Zenith
From: Fernando Pessoa & Co. – Selected Poems
Grove Press, New York, 1998