Luísa Rosas
Licínio Prata Pina
Lídia Jorge
Writer
Surrounded by words, Lídia Jorge has travelled her path, throughout life. Sexagenarian, born in Boliqueime, in the Algarve, she studied Romance Philology, and it was in words that she found her art and her form of expression. When she writes, she is intent on «searching for truth, with the intention of keeping up with and sharing a vision of the world, in an attempt to uncover the modernity that we are going through». She seeks, in her works, to create texts in a framework of harmony. It is through the interpretation of the readers that the author understands the message of her books. And she feels that a book is only finished when chairs are flying around her, as «if this feeling of levitation passes onto the readers, then the message has been passed on».
Letters have always been present in your life. As a child, during your degree, in teaching, as a professor, and in books. How important are words to you?
Words are what make us human beings. Our thinking is made up of words. All people have words as the centre of their lives. But in the case of writers they are also the raw material of their art. Words are entities doubly decisive in my life. With them I reproduce reality, with them I move away from reality, creating fantasies.
Of all the novels and short stories that you have already written, what was the most significant for you?
The first book always holds a very particular place in a writer’s career. In a way, it determines your path. Dia dos Prodígios was my first book. I wrote it so that an ancient Portuguese time would not be forgotten, which I thought was going to disappear quickly, but which actually remains, to this day, as imaginary. The readers rewarded me. All my subsequent books have a dialogue like the first one. That’s how it is with the latest one and how it will be with the next.
«I would say that current literature is among the most original literatures in Europe»
You are a renowned voice in the literary arena. What is your view of Portuguese literature?
Portuguese language and literature date back to the 12th century. You can’t summarise such a lasting literature in so few words. I would say that current literature is among the most original literatures in Europe. It uses the poetic resources of a rich language, translates historical experiences across four continents, in it hundreds of ethnicities are expressed, it is varied in its means of expression, narrative is not subject to the Anglo-Saxon model, quite the contrary, and poetry continues to be faithful to a tradition created in the early 20th century, the leading lights of which were Mário de Sá Carneiro and Fernando Pessoa. And if the diaspora and the subject of Portugal question continue to be a literary theme, the changes brought about by globalisation are nowadays one of the most frequent themes of our literature. It is a literature with tradition and open to the world.
More than 30 years of words have made it to your CV. How many more can we expect?
What can I say? That on nights when the moon is full I think I’ll be like Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in 1685 and never died.
What is your favourite phrase?
The oriental proverb - Life is falling down seven times and getting up eight.
T.
Maria Cruz
P.
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