# pediram a blasfêmia



## Masoud_d84

E se cantam e nascem
Os homens magros de olheiras fundas como eu
_*Não pediram a blasfêmia
De um sol *_que não fosse o mesmo
Para uma criança banto
E o menino africânder.

What does the *bold* part mean? _(Pediram a blasfemia)_


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## Carfer

Masoud_d84 said:


> E se cantam e nascem Os homens magros de olheiras fundas como eu _*Não pediram a blasfêmia De um sol *_que não fosse o mesmo Para uma criança banto E o menino africânder. What does the *bold* part mean? _(Pediram a blasfemia)_


'_Blasfémia_' (habitualmente um dito ímpio ou ofensivo para a religião) está aqui no sentido de dito contrário à razão e à justiça que, neste caso, consiste num _'sol_' que, em vez de ser para todos, discrimine uma criança bantu (negra) de uma criança africânder (branca). O sol, a luz e o calor do sol, tal como o ar, é suposto beneficiar toda a gente.


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## Masoud_d84

Carfer said:


> está aqui no sentido de dito contrário à razão e à justiça que, neste caso


Here it means something you say which is insulting to sun. Right? 
 Its verb is *pedir *which means* ask for? *It is meaningless to me. Ask for blasphemy?!


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## Carfer

No, it's insulting to justice, mankind, reason, decency, to whatever moral principles that forbid inequality for human beings.


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## Masoud_d84

Carfer said:


> No, it's insulting to justice, mankind, reason, decency, to whatever moral principles that forbid inequality for human beings.


Why the poet used sun instead of justice?


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## Carfer

Why do poets (or anyone indeed) use metaphors? The sun is a paradigm /an archetype/ of nondiscrimination, that word shouldn't be taken literally. The sun is there for everyone and that idea of universality is quite easy to understand. We even have a saying/adage/: '_When the sun rises, it's for all (everyone)'. _Justice, on the other hand, is an abstract idea, which, unfortunately, is not widespread.


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## Masoud_d84

Carfer said:


> Why do poets (or anyone indeed) use metaphors? The sun is a paradigm /an archetype/ of nondiscrimination, that word shouldn't be taken literally. The sun is there for everyone and that idea of universality is quite easy to understand. We even have a saying/adage/: '_When the sun rises, it's for all (everyone)'. _Justice, on the other hand, is an abstract idea, which, unfortunately, is not widespread.


What does "pedir" mean here? "Ask for" is meaningless to me.


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## Vanda

Yes, didn't ask for. Men didn't ask for injustice, they've asked for food, for justice, for everything a living soul deserve.


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## Masoud_d84

Really I dont understand relation between "perdiram" and "blasfêmia". I mean it is specific verb for it? I dont understand 
_*Não pediram a blasfêmia *_*De um sol. *


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## Carfer

Don't fixate too much on details, Massoud. Try to grasp the general meaning, read the whole poem and then try to find out what the poet intends to convey.
Maybe knowing its context will help. This poem is about the massacre of Sharpeville in South Africa (21 March 1960). Hundreds of black people were killed by the police. They were protesting, by the thousands, against an internal pass law that restricted their freedom of movement and forced them to live in settlements of improvised buildings without adequate infrastructure, sanitation, safe water supply, electricity and street drainage, the shantytowns. You know, it was apartheid time.
José Craveirinha was a black mozambican poet (he died in 2003), arguably the best of his generation in Mozambique and one of the best in the lusophone world. That's why he talks about '_black men like me_' and '_thin men like me_', thin because the vast majority of African natives in colonial times lived in extreme poverty. That's why he talks about '_the machine guns "pollen" in the air_'. He is talking about the suffering of the people that didn't ask to be born, who nonetheless keep singing to survive. Still they are discriminated, segregated and exploited despite they are humans who didn't ask for a sun that doesn't shine the same way for a black and a white child, short for everyone. A sun that shines differently is a metaphor for apartheid, which, obviously, black people didn't ask to have to suffer. A sun like that is a blasphemy, that's why '_Não pediram a blasfémia de um sol etc._'


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## Masoud_d84

Carfer said:


> Don't fixate too much on details, Massoud. Try to grasp the general meaning, read the whole poem and then try to find out what the poet intends to convey.
> Maybe knowing its context will help. This poem is about the massacre of Sharpeville in South Africa (21 March 1960). Hundreds of black people were killed by the police. They were protesting, by the thousands, against an internal pass law that restricted their freedom of movement and forced them to live in settlements of improvised buildings without adequate infrastructure, sanitation, safe water supply, electricity and street drainage, the shantytowns. You know, it was apartheid time.
> José Craveirinha was a black mozambican poet (he died in 2003), arguably the best of his generation in Mozambique and one of the best in the lusophone world. That's why he talks about '_black men like me_' and '_thin men like me_', thin because the vast majority of African natives in colonial times lived in extreme poverty. That's why he talks about '_the machine guns "pollen" in the air_'. He is talking about the suffering of the people that didn't ask to be born, who nonetheless keep singing to survive. Still they are discriminated, segregated and exploited despite they are humans who didn't ask for a sun that doesn't shine the same way for a black and a white child, short for everyone. A sun that shines differently is a metaphor for apartheid, which, obviously, black people didn't ask to have to suffer. A sun like that is a blasphemy, that's why '_Não pediram a blasfémia de um sol etc._'


_They "*asked for* the blasphemy of the sun" or "*asked* the blasphemy of the sun"? Which one is right?_


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## Carfer

Masoud_d84 said:


> _They "*asked for* the blasphemy of the sun" or "*asked* the blasphemy of the sun"? Which one is right?_


Didn't* ask for* the blasphemy of the sun.


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## Archimec

... they didn't ask for (... ...) a sun that would be different for both whites and blacks.  (?)


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## Masoud_d84

Carfer said:


> Didn't* ask for* the blasphemy of the sun.


Please write its translation in English. It helps me to understand.



Archimec said:


> ... they didn't ask for (... ...) a sun that would be different for both whites and blacks.  (?)


What is (••• •••)?


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## Archimec

(the blasphemy/ the contemptuousness/ the abusiveness/ the profanity...of)


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## Vanda

Uauuuu... Cafer! Não tinha a mínima ideia do fundo histórico do poema!


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## Ari RT

Vanda said:


> Uauuuu... Cafer! Não tinha a mínima ideia do fundo histórico do poema!


Precisamos de um terceiro ícone para as "Reactions": agree, thank you e applause.


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