03. 01. 1942
Born in Oporto. Graduate in Law at the University of Lisbon. He currently holds a directorial position at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Translator, essayist, poet and novelist.
there were boats and boats that left
making our life out of this matter
tars and soldiers that embarked
and folk who cried at the farewell

we were always or almost or close to
running after uncertain shadows
always dreaming of indias and brazils
and discovering our very own misadventures

memory of coral reddened
by blood and suffering mixed
if it rips darkness and storms
brings us also entangled in seaweed

and won some lost some sailing
through cruel fortune and sudden wind
and the time was passing slowly
so slowly in the wheels of fortune

that either we find ourselves or
we are drifting once again
in this corner that is our very own floor
without even our song surviving us

Letras do Fado Vulgar
© Instituto Camões, 2001