Ana Paula Tavares

[O meu amado chega e enquanto despe as sandálias de couro]

Language: portuguese

Translations: german ([Kommt mein Geliebter legt er seine ledernen Sandalen ab]), lithuanian ([Mano mylimasis ateina, nusiauna sandalus iš odos])

[O meu amado chega e enquanto despe as sandálias de couro]

O meu amado chega e enquanto despe as sandálias de couro
             marca com o seu perfume as fronteiras do meu quarto.
             Solta a mão e cria barcos sem rumo no meu corpo.Planta árvores
             de seiva e folhas. Dorme sobre o cansaço embalado pelo momento
             breve da esperança.
             Traz-me laranjas. Divide comigo os intervalos da vida.
             Depois parte.

             Deixa perdidas como um sonho as belas sandálias de couro.

Ana Paula Tavares

photo © gezett.de

* 30.10.1952, Lubango, Angola
lives in: Lisbon, Portugal

Ana Paula Tavares (born 1952, Angola) studied History and worked as a teacher. She has been living in Portugal since the late 1970s, gaining a doctorate there in African History.
She is involved in several environmental organisations in São Paolo and New York, is a member of the Angolan Writers' Association and the Angolan section of UNESCO. She currently works as a historian in Lisbon.
Tavares' poems deal with Angolan tradition and languages. love and war, and especially with the role of women in African society. Tavares uses a conspicuously unsentimental language, which impresses with its precision and unexpected leaps of thought.
Her work is influenced by the works of the Angolan poets David Mestre, Arlindo Barbeitos and Rui Duarte de Carvalho, and the Brazilian poets Bandeira and Drummond. Tavares' prizes include the Premio Mario Antonio, the most important prize for Portuguese-language writers from Africa.