Lisbon, Pessoa, the gone Summer…
Travel
ing through Portugal this summer I visited Lisbon for the first time. Strange to have missed such a major European site for so many years. Miles & I wandered about the city, a many-hilled place by a major river delta – i.e. the perfect location for a city – for an afternoon & an an evening. A poet’s city, if ever there was one!
The Café A Brasileira is situated on a little square named after a poet (Largo do Chiado), edged by a street named after a poet (Garrett) and from the square you can see up to another square, also named for a poet, Camoes.
Statue is that of Chiado on square named after him
A Brasileira is the most famous old literary café in Lisbon, because this is where Fernando Pessoa (& probably all his heteronyms too) used to hold court. You can sit with him even today: there is an empty bronze chair part of the sculpture of Pessao set right among the chairs and tables of the café’s outdoors terrace.
Sat there for a long time, trying to borrow some of the vibes. As night fell we walked on, checking out the amazing freestanding tower that is simply an elevator to help you get to the higher level of the town without having to use up your legs climbing the hill.
Before turning in I went back to whisper some words of admiration into Pessoa’s ear.
(Visited 86 times, 1 visits today)
Poasis II: Selected Poems 2000-2024
“Todesguge/Deathfugue”
“Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021)”
“Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello”
“Conversations in the Pyrenees”
“A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly.” Edited by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh
“An American Suite” (Poems) —Inpatient Press
“Arabia (not so) Deserta” : Essays on Maghrebi & Mashreqi Writing & Culture
“Barzakh” (Poems 2000-2012)
“Fox-trails, -tales & -trots”
“The Agony of I.B.” — A play. Editions PHI & TNL 2016
“The Book of U / Le livre des cormorans”
“Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry of Paul Celan”
“Paul Celan, Microliths They Are, Little Stones”
“Paul Celan: Breathturn into Timestead-The Collected Later Poetry.” Translated & with commentary by Pierre Joris. Farrar, Straus & Giroux
& Fernando whispers back, “Now ashen grey tinges the balding brow…”
So glad poets are so recognized in Lisbon.
DWx
Porto is great too, Pierre — did you manage a visit?