Travellers

Notes

This beautifully precise and concise poem was a delight to translate.

In the first line, we decided to stick with 'bore' because of the sense of the weight of carrying an object as well as enduring something.

In the second stanza, although the Portuguese has the sense of 'where are you from', we felt that focusing on who your people might be was truer to the original than where are you from.

In the final stanza, we stayed with 'held out' because of the feeling of it being a physical gesture, rather than something more abstract, such as 'offered'. And we also stuck with 'mug', rather than cup or glass, because of its association with something everyday and ordinary.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator