Opium, desire or will? Inspiration bound from an elegant seed Subversion, through smoke I foresee Erotic motions of lesser gods in ecstasy
Opium, bring me forth another dream Spawn worlds of flesh and red, little jewels of atrocity Opium, I sleep in debauchery And burn with you when you burn in Me
Opium, we fantasize as we fuse with your root You are a strange flower, we are your strangest fruit
Opium, it burns in me and you Opium, it burns for me and for you
"E por isso eu tomo ópio, é um remédio Sou um convalescente do momento, Moro no rés-do-chão do pensamento E ver passar a vida faz-me tédio."
[Fernando Pessoa / Alvaro Campos: Opi…rio]
[The short Portuguese piece at the end of the song is actually a quote from one of the most famous and at the same enigmatic poets of Portuguese literature, Fernando Pessoa, whose works are abundantly translated into several languages from Czech to English itself. Anyway to make a long story short one of the most interesting aspects of this poet was that we used different personalities each one creating a peculiar kind of writing and a very particular universe of interpretation and artistic creation. I have chosen my favorite split on Pessoa's on the "person" of his heteronyms Alvaro de Campos who was more directed into a kind of urban, grey, depressive poetry. As I wanted to write a song about the creative power of the drug named opium, so evident in a lot of literature that is within my range of interest, I have collected inspiration from a particular poem named "Opicrio" that narrates a boat trip to the Orient in a very, very strange perspective indeed. So the actual thing translated might sound like this (I remark once again all the loss of power that translation carries with it):]
["Therefore I take opium. It is a medicine.] [I am a convalescent of the Moment.] [I live in the ground floor of Thought] [and seeing life goes by grows me tedious."]