IN CASE OF FIRE

Back burn.
This will stop the real flames
from gaining on you.
Choose the river
as your firebreak.
Bulldoze a clearing
to be safe.
Set ablaze
everything
in its path
that could feed it.

Then rest
in the knowledge
that someplace
in all that heat
natural and instigated
somewhere in the smoke
between winning and losing
there is a sequoia seed waiting
to crack and germinate in ash.

///

EM CASO DE INCÊNDIO

Queimada.
Isto impedirá as verdadeiras chamas
de te atingirem.
Escolhe o rio
como teu quebra fogos.
Abre uma clareira
para ficares seguro.
Incendeia
no seu trilho
tudo
o que possa alimentá-la.

Depois descansa
na convicção
de que nalgum lugar
com todo esse calor
natural ou provocado
entre perder e ganhar
há uma semente de sequóia à espera
de rachar e germinar na cinza.

by Jocelyn PAGE (b. in Maryland, USA), in "POETRY REVIEW", Volume 102:4, Winter 2012

(Portuguese translated by Armando TABORDA, 2017)

(photo taken from Internet; edited by Armando TABORDA)

(1st edition, 2013; 2nd & 3rd editions, 2017)