The pearl in her white hair
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a qual em vista de tão felizes e brilhantes resultados, cada vez mais se comprazia em lapidar e polir aquella joia, que ella dizia ser a perola entrançada em seos cabellos brancos.
who, in view of such happy and brilliant results, delighted more and more in cutting and polishing that jewel, which, she said, was the pearl entwined in her white hair.
…who, in view of such happy and brilliant results, delighted more and more in cutting and polishing that jewel — which, she said, was the pearl entwined in her white hair.
The old woman's love speaks in jewels — 'lapidar e polir aquella joia', to cut and polish that jewel — and the image is as tender as it is telling. 'Lapidar' is what a lapidary does to a raw stone: works it into brilliance, and into worth. In her mouth it is pure devotion, a grandmother shaping her darling into all she can be. But a jewel is a thing of value, and Isaura is, in the household's ledger, exactly that — a precious possession being made more precious. Love and appraisal share the verb, and Guimarães lets both meanings stand. The closing figure is his gentlest: 'a perola entrançada em seos cabellos brancos', the pearl braided into her white hair — the child woven into the old woman's very head, the one adornment of her age. It is a beautiful thing to be to someone. It is also, still, to be a jewel someone owns.
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