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Corsino Fortes is a poet and a diplomat. Born on the Cape Verdean island of S o Vicente in 1933, his early work appeared in Claridade (Clarity), a journal that defined Cape Verdean literary identity from the later 1930s to 1960. Fortes' first full poetry collection Pao & Fonema (Bread & Phoneme) was published in 1974. The poet's use of Cape Verdean Creole - and not just standard Portuguese - is a powerful statement reinforcing the idea of the islands' distinctive African nature. Fortes studied in Portugal and spent much of his life abroad on diplomatic service - most notably in Angola and Lisbon.
Cortes s Cape Verde is full of tongues: all of nature speaks and sings. His language is fleshly. This visceral quality comes from abstractions made tangible through Fortes s dense, at times opaque, symbology of bread, coin, sun, sea, guitar, and so on ... But it is also the translators who perform these transformations by essentially by writing like poets. The alliterations I see in the en face Portuguese (which I do not read) are matched in English, enhancing the sense that language is not simply for understanding but for seeing, hearing, and touching. I would recommend this magnificent, generous, and bilingual presentation of Corsino Fortes s work to anyone who enjoys grappling with the poignant, the sensuous, and the esoteric. - Asymptote Journal Concerned with giving voice to Cape Verdean life, Fortes writes in Cape Verdean Creole and not just standard Portuguese a powerful statement reinforcing the islands distinctive African nature. However, his poems are often written from the perspective of an exile and themes of exile and redemptive return recur in his work. This collection introduces English readers to Fortes, and the poet s beautiful and unique use of language. Portuguese American Journal Author of works like Pao e Fonema [Bread and Phoneme] (1974) or Arvore e Tambor [Tree and Drum] (1986), his work expresses a new awareness of Cape Verdian reality and a new reading of cultural tradition from the archipelago. - Antonio Miranda
