The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village

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The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village,
But the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river that flows through my village
Because the Tagus is not the river that flows through my village.

The Tagus has enormous ships,
And for those who see in everything that which isnʾt there
Its waters are still sailed
By the memory of the carracks.

The Tagus descends from Spain
And crosses Portugal to pour into the sea.
Everyone knows this.
But few know what the river of my village is called
And where it goes to
And where it comes from.
And so, because it belongs to fewer people,
The river of my village is freer and larger.

The Tagus leads to the world.
Beyond the Tagus there is America
And the fortune of those who find it.
No one ever thought about whatʾs beyond
The river of my village.

The river of my village doesnʾt make one think of anything.
Whoever is next to it is simply next to it.

Fernando Pessoa & CO.: Selected Poems, Edited and translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith. New York. Grove Press, 1998, p. 20