“Ah Margarida”

Ah Margarida, If I gave you my life, What would you do with it? I’d take my earrings out of hock, Marry a blind man, And live on a tree-lined block. But Margarida, If I gave you my life, What would your mother say? (Her mother knows me inside out.) She’d say you’re a fool, Without a doubt. And Margarida, If I gave you my life Literally, by dying? I’d go to your funeral, firmly believing You’d gone mad To try to love by not living. But Margarida, If this giving of my life to you Were merely poetry? In that case, forget it, The deal’s off, Because I don’t sell on credit. Dictated by the Naval Engineer Sr. Álvaro de Campos in a state of alcoholic unconsciousness.