This is another poem that my friend Peter made for a cat that was born in his “sitio” (kind of ranch) in Brazil, and then was given to us (I used to live in Rio at the time). Today Sophia lives in Friburgo, with my sister and her grown up kids.
This poem describes Sophia’s personality so well that when I read it today I wanted to go back to Friburgo to hug her! What a woman she is!

Sophia

My name is Sophia
A cat of repute
A Queen amongst riff-raff
Of that – no dispute

My Mother, half Tiger
Striped silver and black
Was born in the mountains
Not far from the track –

Where one night, my father
Came calling – quite late
And beckoned my mother
To come – lets go mate

Two brothers, one sister
Of that did result
Sèrge, Tom-Tom, Aurora
All born with no fault

We’d play midst the flowers
And up on the tiles
Which made our pets happy
And caused lots of smiles

Then one day arrived
When I had to change pets
I moved to the city
But have no regrets

For soon I was back
In the mountains again
Where you can see the stars
Feel the wind and the rain

Not the noise and pollution
Of traffic for me
But clean air, big gardens
And space to roam free

Then one day whilst roaming
I happened to see
A handsome young Tomcat
Who beckoned to me

And just like my Mother
I fell for his wiles
And spent, with him close-by
A ‘Night on the tiles’

That night was so good
And so virile was he
That five lovely kittens
Were soon born to me

My pets, give me good food
Are loving and kind
They stroke, kiss and cuddle
Which at times I don’t mind

It’s just that they think
I’m a doll or a toy
Then out comes the camera
And I think “Oh Boy”

Pose this way and that way
And flash in my eyes
And then when I run off
They get a surprise

“Come back here Sophia”
“Please, just one more pic”
To show disapproval
My shoulders I lick

Then exit the room
Midst cries from my Pets
I never go back in
And have no regrets

They’ll have other times
To take photos and things
I have to go hunting
And see what it brings

A mouse, or a birdie
A cobra, or rat
Watch out all you creatures
`Beware of the Cat`

Beware all the dogs too
I do not like those
And if they come too close
I pounce on their nose

With all my fur puffed out
My claws at full stretch
I draw blood from the scratches
I inflict on the wretch

And look out you tomcats
Or you’re going to see
That when I get angry
There’s TIGER in me

Pete of the Sitio 2011

Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw–
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime–Macavity’s not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime–Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air–
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!

Macavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly doomed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square–
But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!

He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair–
Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!

And when the Foreign Office finds a Treaty’s gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scap of paper in the hall or on the stair–
But it’s useless of investigate–Macavity’s not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
“It must have been Macavity!”–but he’s a mile away.
You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macacity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibit, or one or two to spare:
And whatever time the deed took place–MACAVITY WASN’T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey–
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter–
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover–
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

O ME, man of slack faith so long!
Standing aloof—denying portions so long;
Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth;
Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as
inevitably
upon
itself as the truth does upon itself,
Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does.

(This is curious, and may not be realized immediately—But it must be realized;
I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
And that the universe does.)

Where has fail’d a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and
blood?

Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no
liars or
lies after all,
And that nothing fails its perfect return—And that what are called lies are perfect
returns,
And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it,
And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact,
And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth—but that all is truth
without
exception;
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.

Nothing had ever obliged him to do anything. He had spent his childhood alone. He never joined any group. He never pursued a course of study. He never belonged to a crowd. The circumstances of his life were marked by that strange but rather common phenomenon – perhaps, in fact, it’s true for all lives – of being tailored to the image and likeness of his instincts, which tended towards inertia and withdrawal.

O poeta é um fingidor
Finge tão completamente
Que chega a fingir que é dor
A dor que deveras sente
_____________________________
The poet is a faker
Who’s so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.

Fernando Pessoa-himself, “Autopsychography”
(Autopsicografia), tr. Richard Zenith.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Definitive, as everything that is simple.
Our pain doesn’t come from the things that we’ve lived,
but from the things that were dreamed up and not acquired.

Why do we suffer? Why do we automatically forget
what we had enjoyed and we suffer for our unfulfilled projections,
for all the cities that we would have known next to
our love and did not happen, for all the children that we would have together
and didn’t have, for all the shows and books and silences that we would have shared
and did not share.
For all those kisses canceled, for eternity.

We suffer not because our work is stressful and pays little, but for all the free
hours that we lost to go to the movies, to talk to a friend,
to swim, to date.

We suffer not because our mother is impatient with us, but for all the
moments that we could be confiding to her our deepest
anxieties if she was interested to understand us.

We suffer not because our team lost, but for the suffocated euphoria.

We suffer not because we age, but because the future is being
confiscated from us, thus preventing a thousand adventures to happen to us,
all those with whom we dreamed and we never ever try.

Why suffer so much for love?
The truth was we did not suffer, just thank you for having known a so
nice person, which generated an intense feeling in us and made us
company for a reasonable time, a happy time.

How to ease the pain that is in what wasn’t lived? The answer is simple as a verse:

Deluding themselves less and living longer!
Every day I live, the more I become convinced that the waste of life
are in love that we don’t give, the forces that we don’t use,
in the selfish prudence that nothing ventures, and that, dodging the
suffering, we lose also the happiness.

Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional …

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

There comes a time when we no longer say: my God.
A time of absolute purity.
A time when we no longer say: my love.
Because love proved useless.
And eyes don’t cry.
And hands only weave in rough work.
And the heart is dry.

Women knock at the door in vain, don’t open it.
You stay alone, the light goes out,
and in the dark your eyes glow enormous.
You’re convinced, you no longer know suffering.
And you expect nothing from friends.

Old age matters little, what is old age?
Your shoulders support the world
and it weighs no more than a child’s hand.
The wars, famines, and talks in buildings
only prove that life goes on
and not all have freed themselves yet.
Some, finding the spectacle barbarous,
prefer (the delicates) to die.
There comes a time when there’s no point in dying.
There comes a time when life is an order.
Merely life, without perplexity.

Vinicius de Moraes

Há, desde a entrada, um sentimento de tempo na casa materna. As grades do portão têm uma velha ferrugem e o trinco se oculta num lugar que só a mão filial conhece. O jardim pequeno parece mais verde e úmido que os demais, com suas palmas, tinhorões e samambaias que a mão filial, fiel a um gesto de infância, desfolha ao longo da haste.
É sempre quieta a casa materna, mesmo aos domingos, quando as mãos filiais se pousam sobre a mesa farta do almoço, repetindo uma antiga imagem. Há um tradicional silêncio em suas salas e um dorido repouso em suas poltronas. O assoalho encerado, sobre o qual ainda escorrega o fantasma da cachorrinha preta, guarda as mesmas manchas e o mesmo taco solto de outras primaveras. As coisas vivem como em prece, nos mesmos lugares onde as situaram as mãos maternas quando eram moças e lisas. Rostos irmãos se olham dos porta-retratos, a se amarem e compreenderem mudamente. O piano fechado, com uma longa tira de flanela sobre as teclas, repete ainda passadas valsas, de quando as mãos maternas careciam sonhar.
A casa materna é o espelho de outras, em pequenas coisas que o olhar filial admirava ao tempo em que tudo era belo: o licoreiro magro, a bandeja triste, o absurdo bibelô. E tem um corredor à escuta, de cujo teto à noite pende uma luz morta, com negras aberturas para quartos cheios de sombra. Na estante junto à escada há um Tesouro da juventude com o dorso puído de tato e de tempo. Foi ali que o olhar filial primeiro viu a forma gráfica de algo que passaria a ser para ele a forma suprema da beleza: o verso.
Na escada há o degrau que estala e anuncia aos ouvidos maternos a presença dos passos filiais. Pois a casa materna se divide em dois mundos: o térreo, onde se processa a vida presente, e o de cima, onde vive a memória. Embaixo há sempre coisas fabulosas na geladeira e no armário da copa: roquefort amassado, ovos frescos, mangas-espadas, untuosas compotas, bolos de chocolate, biscoitos de araruta – pois não há lugar mais propício do que a casa materna para uma boa ceia noturna. E porque é uma casa velha, há sempre uma barata que aparece e é morta com uma repugnância que vem de longe. Em cima ficam os guardados antigos, os livros que lembram a infância, o pequeno oratório em frente ao qual ninguém, a não ser a figura materna sabe por que, queima às vezes uma vela votiva. E a cama onde a figura paterna repousava de sua agitação diurna. Hoje, vazia.
A imagem paterna persiste no interior da casa materna. Seu violão dorme encostado junto à vitrola. Seu corpo como que se marca ainda na velha poltrona da sala e como que se pode ouvir ainda o brando ronco de sua sesta dominical. Ausente para sempre da casa materna, a figura paterna parece mergulhá-la docemente na eternidade, enquanto as mãos maternas se fazem mais lentas e as mãos filiais mais unidas em torno à grande mesa, onde já agora vibram também vozes infantis.

Vinicius de Moraes
Rio de Janeiro

Ser criado, gerar-se, transformar
O amor em carne e a carne em amor; nascer
Respirar, e chorar, e adormecer
E se nutrir para poder chorar

Para poder nutrir-se; e despertar
Um dia à luz e ver, ao mundo e ouvir
E começar a amar e então sorrir
E então sorrir para poder chorar.

E crescer, e saber, e ser, e haver
E perder, e sofrer, e ter horror
De ser e amar, e se sentir maldito

E esquecer tudo ao vir um novo amor
E viver esse amor até morrer
E ir conjugar o verbo no infinito…

Vinicius de Moraes
Composição: Vinicius de Moraes / Capiba

De tudo, ao meu amor serei atento
Antes, e com tal zelo, e sempre, e tanto
Que mesmo em face do maior encanto
Dele se encante mais meu pensamento

Quero vivê-lo em cada vão momento
E em seu louvor hei de espalhar meu canto
E rir meu riso e derramar meu pranto
Ao seu pesar ou seu contentamento

E assim quando mais tarde me procure
Quem sabe a morte, angústia de quem vive
Quem sabe a solidão, fim de quem ama

Eu possa me dizer do amor (que tive):
Que não seja imortal, posto que é chama
Mas que seja infinito enquanto dure

Manuel Bandeira

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada

Lá sou amigo do rei

Lá tenho a mulher que eu quero

Na cama que escolherei

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada

Aqui eu não sou feliz

Lá a existência é uma aventura

De tal modo inconseqüente

Que Joana a Louca de Espanha

Rainha e falsa demente

Vem a ser contraparente

Da nora que nunca tive

E como farei ginástica

Andarei de bicicleta

Montarei em burro brabo

Subirei no pau-de-sebo

Tomarei banhos de mar!

E quando estiver cansado

Deito na beira do rio

Mando chamar a mãe-d’água

Pra me contar as histórias

Que no tempo de eu menino

Rosa vinha me contar

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada

Em Pasárgada tem tudo

É outra civilização

Tem um processo seguro

De impedir a concepção

Tem telefone automático

Tem alcalóide à vontade

Tem prostitutas bonitas

Para a gente namorar

E quando eu estiver mais triste

Mas triste de não ter jeito

Quando de noite me der

Vontade de me matar

— Lá sou amigo do rei —

Terei a mulher que eu quero

Na cama que escolherei

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada.