Palavras sábias
Quadras
Eu não tenho vistas largas
Nem grande sabedoria,
Mas dão-me as horas amargas
Lições de filosofia.
Há lutas por mil doutrinas.
Se querem que o mundo ande,
Façam das mil pequeninas
Uma só doutrina grande.
Da guerra os grandes culpados
Que espalham a dor da terra,
São os menos acusados
Como culpados da guerra.
Se os homens chegam a ver
Por que razão se consomem,
O homem deixa de ser
O lobo do outro homem.
Embora os meus olhos sejam
Os mais pequenos do mundo,
O que importa é que eles vejam
O que os homens são no fundo.
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The above picture reminds me of Purity and Greatness. That's how I came to
António Aleixo (1899-1949) who was an ordinary illiterate man with one gift: he could rhyme.
His verses are so pure and so meaningful that each strophe contains a lesson to follow.
He is not a learned man but what he sees, experiences and realises is enough to teach him bitter Philosophy lessons.
That is what he says in the above set of four-verse strophes.
He finds a general doctrine would be far better than the thousands of them which lead men to war.
He also speaks of war, of how those who cause it are often taken as not guilty for that, of how men would stop being predators of other men if they got aware they are destroying themselves. He also says that although his eyes are small, the smallest ones in the word, they can see what is really important : how men are deeply inside their heart.
