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Mozambique / All works

Poetry

Sonetos

Not translated into English

Rui de Noronha · 1946

Synopsis

Sonnets published for the most part in the press of Lourenço Marques at the beginning of the thirties. In “Surge et ambula”, the poet addresses Africa, homeland of mystery, which sleeps while the world marches on and progress advances on the other hemisphere. “Au quai” paints the city's bay, its metallic glints and its gulls, then, once night has fallen, the singing of the Black workers amid the din and dust of the coal wharves.

Context

In 1946, his former teacher Domingos Reis Costa drew this posthumous collection from his papers, which he arranged and introduced. As early as 1951, the critic Rodrigues Júnior accused him of having altered the sonnets, which examination of the manuscripts confirmed in the seventies. The notebook left by the poet bore the title “Meus versos”; the complete work was only established in 2006, by Fátima Mendonça.

Who it is for

In Portuguese, with no French translation; the text circulates mainly through anthologies. The reader holds a book chosen and corrected by someone other than the one who wrote it.

Prizes and reception

His poems have appeared in anthologies in about ten countries, and critics regard their author as the forerunner of Mozambican poetry.

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