Poetry
Mornas - cantigas crioulas
Not translated into English
Eugénio Tavares · 1932
Synopsis
Mornas written in the Creole of his island, which are sung rather than read. Departure returns in them constantly: the boat one watches sail away, the one that stays at the quay, the promise to return that is not kept, the woman one leaves behind and the island one may never see again. Sodade is named in them for what it is, a lasting lack, and the verses are short, made for the slow measure of song.
Context
The texts were written in Creole between the nineties of the nineteenth century and the death of their author, at a time when that language had no standing, and the collection appeared in Lisbon two years after that death: twenty-seven mornas, completed by translations he had made of two Portuguese poets. A second edition came out in Luanda in 1969, and it was one of the first books printed in Cape Verdean Creole. The mornas have become the core of the archipelago's repertoire: Cesária Évora sang several of them, and they are passed on today by ear more than by the book.
Who it is for
Short songs in Creole, made to be sung. The recordings give what the page does not.
Prizes and reception
The morna has been on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2019, and Tavares appears on Cape Verdean banknotes.