Bangkok, 11 June 2015
I get many invitations to diplomatic dos. I almost always bin them, but when I received one from the Embassy of Portugal to celebrate the country’s National Day, I hesitated. They do have the most wonderful Embassy here, right on the Chaophraya River.
My wife and I pass it very time we take the water bus down to Sathorn, and as we pass I always feel a twinge of nostalgia, to see this lovely villa from the 1870s, with its lawn sweeping down to the river, squeezed now between modern buildings of concrete, glass and steel. Ah, the Bangkok that once was …
It was decided. I would accept the Ambassador’s invitation, to give us a chance to see this wonderful property up close.
So it was that last night, as dusk was falling, we joined a line of guests to shake the Ambassador warmly by the hand, and then were left free to wander around the lawn, with a white wine in hand. We walked over to the river, turned around, and admired the scene.
As we stood there, sipping our wine, from under the flame tree came the unmistakable lilting lament of fado. Song after song floated across the lawn
É meu e vosso este fado
destino que nos amarra
por mais que seja negado
às cordas de uma guitarra
Sempre que se ouve um gemido
duma guitarra a cantar
fica-se logo perdido
com vontade de chorar
Ó gente da minha terra
agora é que eu percebi
esta tristeza que trago
foi de vós que a recebi
E pareceria ternura
se eu me deixasse embalar
era maior a amargura
menos triste o meu cantar
Ó gente da minha terra
This fado is mine and yours,
A destiny that binds us,
No matter how much denied,
To the strings of a guitar
When we hear the lament
Of a guitar in song
We are instantly lost
In a desire to weep
Oh people of my land,
Now is it that I understand
This sadness which I carry.
I received it from you
And it would seem a tenderness
To allow myself to be soothed.
The bitterness would be greater
My singing less sad.
Oh people of my land
And so filled with saudade, that indefinable existential melancholy which we are told pervades the Portuguese soul, as well as with several glasses of excellent Portuguese wine, we slowly made our way inside the villa, to eat bacalhau à Gomes de Sá.
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Embassy from River: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Embassy_of_Portugal_Bangkok.JPG (in http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Embassy_of_Portugal_Bangkok.JPG)
The other picture: mine
the heart thrills 
