"One has to leave, one has to stay." —Eugénio de Andrade
Bilingual Worksin Portuguese and English
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forgive me these lines!to me you are Portugal—how could I not sing?
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My bilingual poems are the fruit of a journey into learning and loving the Portuguese language. They are conceived in English and crafted to be read in Portuguese. Yet the versions are not strict translations of one another. The writing process begins with the conception of the poems in English, as I develop the essence, ideas, and emotions to be expressed. Using every tool at my disposal—dictionaries, translators, what I have learned in Portuguese language class—the English and Portuguese versions are crafted together simultaneously, line by line, back and forth through trial and error, in a dance of words that intertwine like two distinct bodies searching for harmony with one another, each influencing the other's content, movement and rhythm.
Reviews are very much appreciated!
Review by David Rodrigues, author of 100 Portuguese Moments In a Not So Portuguese World (2021)
Sonja N. Bohm is author of bilingual poems written side-by-side in Portuguese and English and inspired by Portugal. Conceived of in English, and crafted to be read in Portuguese, these poems are the fruit of a journey into learning and loving the Portuguese language. In Poemas do Jardim (Poems from the Garden), the Garden represents an Ideal—a thing not to be fully realized or attained in this life, but no less real or conceivable. The Garden is Portugal. Banco Vazio Poesia (Empty Bench Poetry) is the continuation of a love affair with words: poems written upon Bohm's return to the United States. NEW! Pera e Pedra (Pear and Stone) explores the complexities of a human heart as it navigates the ebb and flow of a sea of emotions; a heart marked by passion and devotion, and tested by separation and longing. Available in paperback and eBook formats at online bookstores. Thanks for visiting!
"And they left him there, where the worlds aspireIn the sunrise glow and the sunset fire!" —Florence Earle Coates
"Life has only one expression, the one where the rooster crows, the one where you listen to it, moved, knowing the night cannot contain it." —Eugénio de Andrade
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