Meu Coração

A Portuguese Haiku

Meu coração é

Amor e alma sempre

Eu ainda choro

My heart is

Love and soul always

I still cry

--

I have always loved Brazilian music and their culture. I grew up listening to bossa novas and sambas. Whenever I listen to Brazilian music, I feel their passion. There's so much soul in what they're singing. The language, to me, is beautiful and romantic. I am a huge fan of Seu Jorge, Ana Carolina, Tiago Iorc, Natiruts, etc. They're pretty amazing artists, and it's a shame that more people don't know about them in the United States. You don't need to know Portuguese to enjoy the music.

I also wound up dating an amazing Brazilian girl and she taught me a ton of words/phrases. I genuinely enjoyed learning them, and felt I picked it up relatively well. Apparently it's easier to go from Portuguese to Spanish, than vice versa. Learning Spanish is something I'd like to do, but for some reason, something is telling me to learn Portuguese. So I'm planning on learning, at the very least, Portuguese and hopefully I'll be able to understand Spanish well enough. The goal, of course, is to be able to speak both well.

Anyways, I've been using this app called Busuu to learn not only Portuguese but Japanese as well. I think these apps are a great way to learn a language. But you have to be consistent with it. I've been holding myself accountable every day in taking at least an hour to study the languages. Repetition is the key to mastery.

Not that I'm fluent by any means, I'm not even close, but I know the language well enough now where I could put together a short haiku. What I wanted to convey was that I have so much love to share, and to give. And as much as I practice living in the moment, I still have my self-doubts. I still have my bad days. I still have things happen that make me sad, even if, in the grand scheme, they're trivial.

For me, I feel the way this haiku sounds, in Portuguese, reflects accurately the passion I'm trying to convey. Plus, I think it sounds beautiful. But then again, I'm a bit biased. Hope you dig it!

-JTC