Garota de Lalomanu

I write this in Melbourne, in winter, but 30 hours ago I was on one of the world's finest beaches gazing on the white sand, the clear warm waters, surf on the reef, lush green island offshore. And, not least, onshore a bevy of beautiful bikini clad backpackers continually distracting the easily distracted such as myself. All this I was about to tear myself away from, to motorcyle back to the town, to fly to the cold and the clothed.



I'm a sucker for the bossa nova song, "The Girl from Ipanema". The original Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes ("Garota de Ipanema") are much deeper than the English version, and they hint that beauty can bring sadness, as well as joy.

Later he wrote of the girl, "the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone — it is a gift of life in its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow."

What had flowed was about to ebb for me, I gazed and loved, and embraced the sadness.

The Garota de Lalomanu was undoubtedly S. a lovely Dutch girl: Tall (oh, about 6'3") and Tan (of course, she is in the tropics) and Young (only 20, half my age and a bit less) and Lovely (a lovely nature too; I smile and she does see, she smiles at me!)

As I type this in my winter, I still love a bit this Garota de Lalomanu, I suspect I'm not alone.