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Maria João Cantinho




Translated by Julia Willemyns




SAVANNAH



If I asked you for the stillness of time, father,

A postponed body, still,

and recounted the trips to you

we would take in the olden times

and my words could

warm your gaze, bring it back

to my ground, to my hands,

like the stories you used to tell me

and then we would laugh, whole.


If I asked you for the stillness of time, father,

to restart life, to rebuild

the ruins, gather all the bones

to give you back the light of the savannah

and the trees’ breathing, the inexhaustible song

of the earth, of the river beneath us

and of the wild look in the gazelles’ eyes

on the tawny back of dawn.


If I asked you for the stillness of time, father,

to restart all over again,

childhood and sand flowing through us,

nothing but music and the savannah’s secret

the tribe’s fire, the dancing

and the everlasting times

of the old tongues

that intertwine with the gods

and the dust.



 

Maria João Cantinho is a secondary school teacher and she taught at IADE (Creative University of Lisbon) between 2011 e 2015. She's a member of the PEN Portuguese Club Direction, of APE (Portuguese Writers Association), and of APCL (Portuguese Literary Critics Association). She contributes regularly to the Magazine Colóquio-Letras, Jornal de Letras, and to a number of publications. She organised Poetry Anthologies to Blanco Móvil, Lichtungen, Aujourd’hui Poème. She published collective books about Emanuel Levinas, Paul Calan, María Zambrano. She curates the collection Trás-os-Mares (Editora Circuito, Brazil), collection MU – Continente Perdido (Editora Exclamação), and the Essay collection of Azougue Editorial (Brazil). She was awarded the Prémio Glória de Sant’Anna 2017 for her book Do Ínfimo (Coisas de Ler, 2016), and shortlisted for the Prémio PEN de Poesia (2017). She has published a number of books of fiction, poetry and essay.


Julia Willemyns is currently studying Modern and Medieval languages (French and Portuguese) at the University of Oxford. Born to Brazilian-Argentinian parents and raised in Hong Kong, she is particularly passionate about Latin America, frequently covering the region for publications like the Oxford Political Review and Sounds and Colours. In her spare time, Julia also writes poetry and prose.


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