With everything, to my love I’ll be attentive,
Until, and with that zeal, and always, and so much
That even in the face of the most enchanted
It’s made more enchanting still.
Continue reading “sonnet of fidelity”sonnet of fidelity
Category: Translations
Original translations written by Ana Silva for onlycoffeeisreal.co.uk.
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen ‘Death’ – A Translation
Death
How you are clear,
What freshness stayed between your fingers…
You are a fountain,
With white stones in your depths,
Continue reading “Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen ‘Death’ – A Translation”da terra: a new translation project
Friends,
I’ve loved writing this blog, receiving your comments, and seeing my work referenced in yours. Onlycoffeeisreal will continue to be my very personal and special place on the internet, and I aim to publish the many, many currently ‘in draft’ posts I have saved over the coming months. But now, and in the future, you can also find my work (and new translations) on the recently launched and co-managed da-terra.org.
For me, da terra is an evolution of and represents a progression from, the work I first explored here: our aim is to increase representation and raise awareness of voices and stories from Portuguese-speaking Africa. You can read poetry and short story translations, as well as (soon to come) more literary translations which remain the heart of what I love to do, but we also transcribe, translate and publish interviews from real people, sharing their stories and experiences of colonial, but mostly post-colonial, Portuguese-speaking Africa.
I’m still that girl. And I hope you’ll continue to read, enjoy, reference and comment on my work.
Noémia de Sousa ‘I Will Rise Lucid’ – A Translation
You beat me and threaten me
Now I lift my enlighted head
And scream: ‘Enough!’(…) Condemning me to eternal darkness
Now my African soul is illuminated
And discovered the fraud and screamed, screamed a thousand
times:_’Enough!’.
You put me in this cage and now you want to crucify me
Now I’ve drawn the rosy tint from my eyes
And screamed: ‘Enough!’
Continue reading “Noémia de Sousa ‘I Will Rise Lucid’ – A Translation”Sofia de Mello Bryner Andreson ‘Await Me’ – A Translation
On beaches that are the white faces of the beloved dead
I will let your name lose itself repeatedly
But await me:
For however long the journey
I’ll return.
Continue reading “Sofia de Mello Bryner Andreson ‘Await Me’ – A Translation”
only coffee is real 
