1922
Born in Lourenço Marques (Maputo today), Mozambique.Civil servant, athlete, sports writer, journalist. First president of the Association of Mozambique Writers. Poet and short story writer. Winner of the Prémio Camões. He is today an unmistakable and major literary figure in the Portuguese language.
We are together.
And Mozambican our hands
hold each other
and we look at the landscape and smile.

We don't know areas of sterling
of exchange rates
border visas
mark and dollar zones
tolls at Limpopo
canals of Suez and Panama.

We love each other today on a beach in Honduras
tomorrow we will be under the blue sky of Burma
and on the dawn of your birthday
we wake up in each other's arms
swinging in the hammock at our home in Nicaragua

Or
with eyes aflame
in the Mediterranean sunsets
remembering the balmy nights of Polana beach
and with kisses I sip your mouth in Senegal
and after we tinge each other's
lips with blackberries from Jerusalem
both saddened by the gallop of human feet
without horseshoes but pulling rickshaws.

Karingana ua Karingana
© Instituto Camões, 2001