Translator's Introduction to The women vacuum — Web Exclusive
By Paulo da Costa
The first book printed in Portuguese emerged from the monastic cells of religious life during the 15th century. The book was written by the priest Clemente Sanches de Vercial. This tradition of a highly cultured clergy continued in Portugal, tending the growing garden of the printed word through the centuries, and reaching its apogee during the Portuguese Baroque period. Padre Antdnio Vieira became one of the better-known voices of this era with his work "Saint Anthony's Sermon to the Fishes." The clergy continued to play an active part in the Portuguese world of letters up until the 19th century, producing works with a predominantly moralistic and didactic tone.
In the 1990s, the dominance of secular writers throughout the modem era was challenged by the emergence of two talented poets dedicated to the religious life: José Tolentino Mendonça and Daniel Faria. In these writers, many saw the promise of a renewal in Portuguese poetry Their religious background and commitment attracted curiosity and attention, yet their writing reflects both secular and religious concerns.
Daniel Faria was a novice at the Singeverga Monastery in Portugal until his sudden death in 1999. He died at the age of 28 from complications arising from a fall he took in his bathroom quarters. He had published two books of poetry: Explicação das árvores e de outros animais and Homens que são como Lugares Mal Situados.
My goal as I translated the following untitled poem was to preserve the surprising turns of phrase and leaps of imagination that so attract me to his work. In this poem, one senses the interconnectedness of the women to the houses they inhabit. It is as if the houses and the women were made of similar substances, similar cells.
Paulo da Costa was born in Luanda, Angola, and raised in Vale de Cambra, Portugal. He is a writer, editor, and translator living on the West Coast of Canada. His first book of fiction, The Scent of a Lie, received the 2003 Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada-Caribbean Region and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. His poetry and fiction have been published widely in literary magazines around the world and translated to Italian, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian, and Portuguese.