Lá no Água Grande
Alda do Espírito Santo
Lá no Água Grande
Lá no «Água Grande»
a caminho da roça negritas batem que batem co’a roupa na pedra.
Batem e cantam modinhas da terra.
Cantam e riem em riso de mofa histórias contadas,
arrastadas pelo vento.
Riem alto de rijo, com a roupa na pedra
e pōem de branco a roupa lavada.
As crianças brincam e a água canta.
Brincam na água felizes…
Velam no capim um negrito pequenino.
E os gemidos cantados das negritas
lá do rio ficam mudos lá na hora do regresso…
Jazem quedos no regresso para a roça.
By the Água Grande
Marisa Bruno
By the Água Grande*
Bound for the fields, by Água Grande,
Black women beat and beat cloth against stone.
They beat and sing songs of their home.
They sing and laugh laughs full of scorn,
Tell stories… tossed into wind.
Strongly they laugh, keeping cloth against stone,
Turning to white the cloth that they clean.
The children play! And the waters sing!
The children in gay waters play…
Keeping baby black boy in the reeds.
…
The cries that the black women by the river sing
Go quiet at the hour of return… Fall still returning to the fields.
*The Água Grande River runs through São Tomé’s most populated province,
which is also called Água Grande.
