Poetry
Delírios
Not translated into English
Synopsis
Portuguese verses composed from 1875 to 1887, according to the collection's subtitle. The poet slips in Kimbundu words, the language of his people, which he prints in italics and translates for the reader who does not speak it, and he sings the beauty of the African woman against the European ideal of beauty that then dominated.
Context
The sources date the collection to 1887, 1888, 1889 or 1890, and have it appear in Luanda or in Lisbon. The Imprensa Nacional of Portugal reissued it in 2001, with a preface by Eduardo Bonavena. According to a study in the journal Forma Breve, the Swiss missionary Héli Chatelain called its author the black poet of the Cuanza and believed him to have passed from Portuguese poetry to a literature in Kimbundu; Angola nevertheless built its literature in Portuguese.
Who it is for
Verse in Portuguese, scattered with Kimbundu words translated by the author; no French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
Its author is held to be the father of Angolan literature, and the collection one of the foundations of its poetic tradition.
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The pages consulted to check this page.