<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Palatino Linotype" LANG="0">Hello you all,<BR>
In all honesty, I haven't been up to snuff, physically or emotionally, since I came back from Santiago, (far from it) , and haven't had the animus to write about the wonders of the Via de la Plata that I so much want to share with you.<BR>
Hopefully, I will be able to do so soon.<BR>
Meanwhile.... A Brazilian pilgrim posted a love letter to the Camino today which, I am sure, speaks for all of us.... albeit, in that inimitable Brazilian way.<BR>
The following is an attempted translation of the letter:<BR>
<BR>
"My dear Camino de Santiago, <BR>
I love you.<BR>
I know that only in this way, loving, I can write to you.<BR>
Today I write as a woman and as a lover, exactly in the same way that I walked your demanding and beautiful trails full of "hard sand, mud, sun and rain".<BR>
To me you are the Camino de Santiago , and, so, symbolically, the Camino of life. You are life itself: pure, distilled, purveyor of pain and of passion and of so much more,... as any great love must be.<BR>
I love you! <BR>
With your welcome and your generosity I entered your forests, your valleys, your fields and your long long trails. And, little by little, I began feeling the sensitivity and the art with which you entered my veins, my bones, my blood, and the magical recesses of my very being. <BR>
Today you and I are lovers, and our love is forever, as all true love must be.<BR>
Antonella Zara"<BR>
<BR>
.......I thought you'd relish this letter.<BR>
I'm not a good translator .... nor can I possibly, ever, even begin to suggest the melodic poetry of the letter in its original language; so here is the original version -minus the accents, etc. which my keyboard does not have. <BR>
<BR>
"Meu querido Caminho de Santiago, amo voce.<BR>
Entendo que somente assim, amando, posso escrever para voce. Hoje lhe escrevo como mulher e como amante, exatamente da mesma forma que percorri suas arduas e belhas trilhas cheias de "poeira lama sol e chuva".<BR>
Voce, para mim e o caminho de Santiago porem e tambem, simbolicamente, Caminho da vida. Voce e vida em seu estado puro e destilado, voce e dor, e paixao, e e muito mais, como somente um grande amor sabe ser. Eu amo voce! Com a sua permissao, sua generosidade, penetrei seus bosques, vales, campos, seus longos caminhos. E fui sentindo como, pouco a pouco, com sensibilidade e arte voce penetro minhas weias, meus ossos, meu sangue, as cavernas magicas do meu ser. Hoje somos amantes e nosso amor e eterno como todo o verdadeiro amor.".<BR>
----------------<BR>
Big affectionate hug, <BR>
<BR>
Rosina<BR>
<BR>
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