A heart, only to suffer · II
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Os meos braços estão presos, A ninguem posso abraçar, Nem meos labios, nem meos olhos Não podem de amor fallar; Deo-me Deus um coração Sómente para penar.
My arms are bound, I can embrace no one, nor can my lips, nor my eyes, speak of love; God gave me a heart only to suffer.
Second stanza. Her arms are bound — she can embrace no one; her lips and eyes may not speak of love; God gave her a heart, she sings, only in order to suffer.
The second stanza is about the body, and everything it is forbidden. Her arms are 'presos', bound, so she can hold no one; her lips and eyes are barred even from speaking love. Slavery here is not only labour stolen but tenderness forbidden — the whole apparatus of loving another human being shut off. And then the terrible last couplet, which raises the complaint to heaven: 'Deo-me Deus um coração / Sómente para penar' — God gave me a heart only to suffer. It is close to blasphemy, and that is its power: a wrong so total that it indicts even the God who made her able to feel. Guimarães lets his slave sing what a sermon never could.
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