Here’s a favorite Lenten poem. Lent is the penitant season, where the resisted discipline of confession is given a central place. Luis de Camoes (1524-1580) is considered Portugal’s greatest poet. A soldier for much of his life, his religious and romantic poems are worth getting to know.
Sin
Happy is the man whose only problem worth
complaining about is love’s audacious schemes,
since they alone can never destroy his dreams
of finding some contentment here on earth.
Happy is he, who, far from home, embraces,
sadly, only his fondest memories
because, despite his isolations, he sees
and clearly comprehends the sorrow he faces.
Happy is he who lives in any state
where only fraud and love’s deceits and doubt
are able to torture his heart from within.
But tragic is he who lives beneath the weight
of some unforgivable act, living without
consciousness of the damage of his sin.
–Luis de Camoes
(trans. Willima Baer)
(graphic by Israel Galindo)
Make a good Lent.
