Portugal National Day - Viva Portugal - 10th June 2023. Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

Long live Portugal,
you were the colonists of our land;
my birth, my ascendancy belongs to you
though my origin is Indian;
I was born in Goa in the Portuguese era
but in my bloodstream flows thy grace,
in my veins is thy grains and chains
of connections and ancestry.

No leadership lasts for years
no greatness lasts forever
but what ever you have given us
is so neatly enshrined in our memory
and in our books of law and integrity
that though thou has left our shores
every corner, every town square,
every church and every ancient house
reminds us of the architecture
you have left behind for us.

Even the food like cafreal and vindalo,
the saussages and the bebinca
brings so much of appetite and gusto
that over the years even the culture
you have handed to us continues
with a sense of pride that is so unique
and I am so grateful
that my land is the most beautiful
with all that you have offered to us:
those magnificent churches in old Goa
and around every corner of the villages
mesmerizes people's eyes and wonder.

Thank you Portugal
thank you for teaching us and inspiring us,
thank you for the enlightenment
thank you for the freedom without a war;
and though regrets may be many
though memories maybe so painful
yet to forget what you gave us
is far more rewarding
and at the same time enticing
as millions of tourists
admire and appreciate
all what you have left behind;

as our Goa has so much more to offer
like your Portuguese cuisine,
the traditions of feasts (festas de santos)
and the annual Sao Joao
where people jump in the wells
for revelry and sports
while it makes everyone so filled with awe;
and that Sunday mass, the baptism
the Christians weddings
where the bride wears white gown
and the bridegroom in a formal suit
take their vows like a Hollywood scene;

all these elevates a sense of modernity
which is so mystic and so full of vivacity,
while the extravaganza of carnival
repeats its enthusiasm annually
ushering a joy and reminding us
that our Goa was so Portuguese,
once upon a time,
once upon a time.