If you want to have a beautiful New Year
The color of the rainbow or the color of your peace,
A New Year beyond comparing to all the time you've already lived,
(lived badly perhaps or senselessly)
If you want to have a year
Not freshly painted with everything back on the right track,
But new in the feelings of coming to be;
New
Down to the heart of the things you are least aware of
(to begin with what's inside you)
New, spontaneous, you don't find it to be so perfect,
But with it you eat, you walk,
You love, you understand, you work.
You don't need to drink champagne or any other drink,
You don't need to go on visits or receive cards
(You plan to receive cards?
Send telegrams?)
You don't need
To make a list of good resolutions
To file in your bureau drawer.
You don't need to cry with regret
Over foolish things you've already done
Or to half believe
That by the decree of hope
From January onward things will change
And everything will be brightness, reward,
Justice among men and nations
Freedom with the fragrance and taste of morning bread,
Your rights being respected, beginning
With the sacred right to live.
To have a New Year
Which deserves that name
You, my friend, have to deserve it,
You have to make it new, I know that it's not easy,
But try, experiment, be conscious.
It's inside of you that the New Year
Has always been dormant and waiting.
Notes
To read this in the original Portuguese click here
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/92573-Carlos-Drummond-de-Andrade-Receita-De-Ano-Novo-
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Comments
1 - 7 of 7
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so much of what is...is what we permit, accept, or embrace into understanding. We are rarely changed without our permission. We have these experiences often, the sudden realization...the lightning bolt or revelation...of something truly there before our very eyes and somehow unrealized...in a sense unseen...Andrade was a brilliant man, and had the ability to reduce the most complicated things...into a simple phrase, giving poetry to every moment...PK
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Like one before me I like the content of this poem but I also think the structure is prose chopped up to look like free verse poetry. The final two lines make it all worth reading:"It's inside of you that the New Yearhas always been dormant and waiting"
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Drummond, in "New Year's Recipe"
admonishes the reader not
'...to half believe
That by the decree of hope
From January onward things will change
And everything will be brightness, reward,
Justice among men and nations..."
But January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC, USA
one might want to fully believe....
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From guest Amera (contact)
I enjoyed the content of this poem but I found the structure a bit like chopped up prose. Perhaps the translation from Portuguese did that. I liked this line: “You don't need to drink champagne or any other drink” and it inspired me to write a poem of my own. I especially like the title of this poem and I believe that titles are so important in good poetry as it not only creates a preliminary image but also generates interest attracting readers to the piece. -
In "New Year's Recipe" Carlos Drummond de Andrade isn't just speaking of correcting wrongs, he writes of new beginnings, new essences of who we wish to become. He expressly differentiates between these two solutions:
"If you want to have a year
Not freshly painted with everything back on the right track,
But new in the feelings of coming to be;
New
Down to the heart of the things you are least aware of"
It's the heart of essence and being, those most basic elements that we are aware of...we may not recognize specifics, but we do those generalities that we learn (and forget?) at an early age.
Drummond reminds us that it's this core that needs to change, that all these surface elements are mere window dressing: we don't need to drink champagne, write resolutions, cry over regrets...these are surface and symbol, not at the heart of the matter.
But he goes further, reminding us that before we can change, we must deserve to change, and that is, for me, the flaw in this poem. Drummond de Andrade tells us, not what we need to do, but merely how to do it. Like the nihilist, he tears down but does not propose how to re-construct, merely that to do so is inside of us. Therefore, the poem at first seems like circular reasoning in that he implies, "If we wish to find life anew, make life anew." Which seems no logical solution at all. But maybe that is Drummond de Andrade's point. It's not for the prophet to know the specific means to a new start. We have to find that, it's within us, and only each individual can know what that right path is to his new beginning.
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wise words
From guest Kevin Pace, WordsDoMatter (contact)
kind sir, thank you for sharing... it really is a matter of attitude... it is our decision afterall how we go about life... how we wake up each day (or each year)... thank you for your thoughtful insight -
From guest hawkeslake (contact)
Amazing! So glad I clicked on the contest, and then took myself here. The final lines are just mind-blowing. Where has this poet been all my life? -
Well Spoken advise
From guest Wind Walker (contact)
My favorite part is " To have a New Year Which deserves that name You, my friend, have to deserve it there in is the answer "Down to the heart of the things you are least aware of (to begin with what's inside you) New, spontaneous, you don't find it to be so perfect, But with it you eat, you walk, You love, you understand, you work" each has to find that answer for themself He was so eloquent in telling you how to but no one can make you = you either do or not do -
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From guest Just Mercedes (contact)
The key to this poem is in the lines 'But try, experiment, be conscious. It's inside of you that the New Year Has always been dormant and waiting.' Here is a sage, and his advice is that of all sages through the ages. The truth has always been within you - seek and you will find. -
Masterfully Written!
I begin my new year on my date of birth every year. Ever grateful to see another year's passing urges me to begin anew.
The poet knows that to look back at faults, shortcomings, misgiving... is fruitless. Can we reconstruct the past? In some instances we can revisit but we can never undo or redo that which is already done.
He is a wise poet. This is profoundly scribed, yet it makes the most common sense. It also leaves me to stop commenting at this point so, I can reflect on these words. I need to savor the depth written here.
Thanks Mari for posting this work of wonder.
Much Love & HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Your Sis',
Renee
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From guest poetryality (contact)
My birthdate has always been my "New Year".
Another moment added
to those already collected.
The refreshing chance
to breathe in possibility,
exhale fatigued ideas, thoughts...
Like the old man who set a sign
in his slow moving van's back window;
"Retired and loving it!"
There is great revelation in newness. A releasing gust of wind's way sweeps us in different directions when we don't fight it, when we simply brush off the old, and daily begin again.
A MASTERFULLY WRITTEN WORK OF POETRY.
BRAVO! to this Old Poet
Thank you Mari for working so hard over here at OP!
God Bless & Happy New Year!
Renee 
HAPPY
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From guest Still Standing (contact)
This is how I feel about almost every holiday. People are all of a sudden nice, all of a sudden wanting to be around loved ones and all of a sudden wanting to start off anew....you have 365 days every year to do just that, it doesn't have to be some special holiday every day we breathe is special! -
I do feel that the poet is saying it doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘New Year’ to begin a New Year. We can begin a New Year at any time as our hearts and minds dictate. To push away the mantle of out-dated thoughts, habits and patterns - to begin afresh, to make our lives enriched by living our lives as we wish to.
This man, in my opinion, was a wise man and had kept some of the older life values very close to him. -
Again Drummond suggests that there needs to be newness, an awakening and to gain this he reminds us that it is in how we seek, not in surface and symbol.
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