The Old Sailor's Ballad

Coleridge's long poem in seven parts, one of the most widely read and studied, is carefully translated by Alberto Pimenta into seven-syllable lines, sometimes split into two with a pause separating them. The author's marginal notes form a measured commentary, a second voice complementing the rhythm of the first.

The translation reinvents the poem's cadence and rhyme, showing a rare respect for poetic writing in a language so different from Portuguese.