The Sea Demon, by Fernando Pessoa
May 20, 2017
The Sea Demon lives at the end of the sea
On the night of pitch darkness, rose up in flight;
Around the ship he flew three times,
He flew three times and hissed,
And said: "Who dares to enter?
In my caverns that I show to no one,
My black ceilings of the end of the world? »
And the man at the helm said, shaking:
«The King D. João Segundo»
"Whose are the sails do I entangle?
Whose keels do I see and hear? "
Said the Sea Demon, and it turned three times,
Three times it turned silent and immense,
"Who comes to do that which only I can,
I exist where no one has ever seen me
And do I scatter the fears of a bottomless sea?
And the man at the helm trembled, and said,
«The King D. João Segundo»
Three times from the wheel he pulled back his hands,
Three times to the wheel he put them back,
And he said after trembling three times:
"Here at the helm is more than me:
I am a People who want the sea that is yours;
And more than a Sea Demon, who my very soul fears
That runs in the darkness of the end of the world;
Is the will, which binds me to the helm,
Of the king El-Rei D. João Segundo!
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