The Perfect Hour: Selected Poems

Poet and storyteller Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919-2004) is one of Portugal's best-loved writers. Her poems express her deep connection with the natural world her main subjects being childhood and youth nature and above all the sea. She was also steeped in classical literature and some of her Greek-inspired poems are present in this selection which features translations from two of her poetry collections -- Dia do Mar and O Nome das Coisas -- translations made by Colin Rorrison before his sudden death in Argentina at the age of 28 and edited by the celebrated translator Margaret Jull Costa.Dia do Mar was published in 1947 when the poet was 28. Its subjects are gardens the sea the beach and the house and its central theme the search for perfection purity and harmony. The poems have all the intensity of childhood memories but are imbued too with an adult awareness of mortality. O Nome das Coisas was published thirty years later after the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the overthrow of the Salazar/Caetano regime after almost fifty years of repression. Many of its poems are political and refer to a particular time and place and situation and yet they remain strikingly bracing and fresh.