In the photos, we can clearly see Gronho, the giant sentry Rock, and how the oceanic Sea, breached through the Aberta, gaining full access to the Lagoa de Óbidos, remaking a completely new scenário, destroying the man-made beach. The Ocean reclaims what belongs to it by the incredible force of Nature! Both photos were taken on the 31-01-2010
by Laetitia Smit
Há 50 anos que sei de ti,
mas sei que ainda não te conheço.
Vi-te, senhora do engenho e do capricho,
mil vezes mudar de cara;
meiga ou violenta,
generosa ou pérfida;
reinavas sobre os peixes e as gentes,
as águas e as areias.
Nem o Mar Oceano rompia
a tua porta Aberta fechada.
A cada partida, sussurrava, maternal,
a carta da Vida aos robalos,
aos sargos a às douradas,
aos flamingos, às garças e às tarambolas.
O gigante, sentinela de pedra alerta,
os chamaria na hora de voltar.
Viste-me nascer,
ganhar asas e voar para longe;
como um jovem pássaro,
tonto pela vertigem da primeira migração,
acreditei que o vento sopra sempre na mesma direcção,
que a maré vaza não volta a encher.
E pensei em Adeus.
Depois, em tanto e tanto Mundo,
te entrevi que,
finalmente, entendi o teu silêncio sábio
e ouvi o grito do Gronho.
Olho para ti e sei que voltei a casa!
João Martins Pereira
I don't know you,
although I have known about you for fifty years.
I saw you, Lady of device and whim,
changing faces a thousand times;
submissive or violent; generous or evil,
ruling over fish and folk;
waters and sands.
Nor could the oceanic Sea
breach the closed Aberta (Open) door.
At each departure,
you whispered your maternal wisdom,
as if in a chart of Life,
to bass and bream,
flamingos, herons or plovers.
The giant, alert sentry Rock,
would call them home, in the hour of return.
You witnessed my birth,
and later, gaining wings to fly afar
as a young bird, dizzy from its first migration,
I believed that the wind would always blow
from the same direction
and the low tide would never rise again.
And I thought of farewell.
Then, having glimpsed you over and over again
throughout my wanderings in the world,
I finally understood your wizened silence
and heard Gronho's shout
I look at you and I know I am back home!
Laetitia Smit (translation).
