Jorge Almeida
Maria S. Mendes
To interpret a poem, it seems to me, boils down to an effort of paying attention to what is ‘uncanny’ and singular about the poem (a surprising alliteration, an unexpected rhyme, etc.), to what is ‘familiar’ (the relation we establish between the poem and our previously acquired knowledge), and to the necessity of not becoming bewitched exclusively by the virtues of what is ‘uncanny’ or of what is ‘familar’. Following that effort, we can only hope that that attention may help clarify why “À Clausura do Bussaco” is a sonnet and not a villanelle, or why the lines “Para bailar la Bamba / Se necesita una poca de gracia” remind me of Saint Augustine.
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