Poem: I Counted My Years
by Mario de Andrade, Brazil 1893-1945
I counted my years
and found that I have less time to live
from here on than I have lived up to now.
I feel like that child who won a packet of sweets:
he ate the first with pleasure,
but when he realized that there were few left,
he began to enjoy them intensely.
I no longer have time for endless meetings
where statutes, rules, procedures and internal regulations are discussed,
knowing that nothing will be achieved.
I no longer have time to support the absurd people who, despite their chronological age, haven’t grown up.
My time is too short: I want the essence,
My soul is in a hurry.
I don’t have many sweets in the package anymore.
I want to live next to human people,
very human, who know how to laugh at their mistakes
and who are not inflated by their triumphs and who take on their responsibilities.
Thus human dignity is defended and we move towards truth and honesty
It is the essential that makes life worth living.
I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts,
people who have been taught by the hard blows of life
to grow with gentle touches of the soul.
Yes, I’m in a hurry, I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.
I don’t intend to waste any of the leftover sweets.
I am sure they will be delicious, much more than what I have eaten so far.
My goal is to reach the end satisfied and at peace with my loved ones and my conscience.
We have two lives
and the second begins when you realise you only have one.
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