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🦋 Dedications

What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire? is dedicated to the Renaissance poet Francisco Sá de Miranda, who Lobo Antunes says supplied the title of his book. Interesting! Sá de Miranda's work does not appear to be available online so tracking down the source is going to take a little legwork. The book is also dedicated to "Marisa Blanco for her pitiless friendship".

Aha! Found the sonnet in question, courtesy of blogger Gonçalo Figueirdo Augusto (whose blog incidentally shares its title with another of Lobo Antunes' novels -- and which he also publishes in English):

Desarrazoado* amor, dentro em meu peito,
Tem guerra com a razão. Amor, que jaz
E já de muitos dias, manda e faz
Tudo o que quer, a torto e a direito.

Não espera razões, tudo é despeito,
Tudo soberba e força; faz, desfaz,
Sem respeito nenhum; e quando em paz
Cuidais que sois, então tudo é desfeito.

Doutra parte, a Razão tempos espia,
Espia ocasiões de tarde em tarde,
Que ajunta o tempo; em fim, vem o seu dia:

Então não tem lugar certo onde aguarde
Amor; trata traições, que não confia
Nem nos seus. Que farei quando tudo arde?

posted evening of Friday, December 26th, 2008
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Hello!! Congratulations for your website and thanks from linking me. In fact "desarrazoado" is the correct word used nowadays. "Desarrezoado" corresponds to the old spelling. I tried to put the poem of Sá de Miranda in modern Portuguese but i certainly forgot to change the word. Actually there is another version of the poem that begins with "Amor bravo e razão dentro em meu peito" (Wild love and reason deep in my chest).

posted afternoon of January 29th, 2009 by Gonçalo Figueiredo Augusto

Hi Gonçalo! Thanks for the confirmation about the spelling, I was wondering what to make of that.

posted evening of January 29th, 2009 by Jeremy

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