Book, Of love I have lived: 50 poems [LS]

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. In this brief collection, illustrated by the artist Ana Prata, the reader will discover the many faces of the poet who dedicated herself to love with total devotion. From her first book of poetry, Presságio, from 1950, to her last, Cantares do sem nome e de Graças, from 1995, love permeates all of Hilda Hilst's poetic production. In constant dialogue with the tradition of odes, trovas and songs, the poems thematize love in its multiple forms: surrender to the beloved, the burning desire, the expectation of meeting, the fear of parting. With a vast repertoire of images, Hilda creates an admirable universe composed of earth, trees, bark, fruits, roots, plants, flowers. “We sowed the seed/ And we waited for a summer”, he writes. Birds also land frequently in the verses, with their wings that do not always symbolize freedom: there are wings of fire, of astonishment, but there are also wings of iron, torn off wings. There is, above all, the urgent desire to be read, understood, looked at again: “They made me out of stone/ when I wanted/ to be made out of love”.