Question: what Portuguese term is harder to translate than saudade ? Answer: calçada portuguesa . Calçada portuguesa has a clear and unambiguous meaning : it is a paving surface made from small pieces of hard dense limestone with one flat face. The limestone comes in both black and ivory forms. The contrast between the two colours is used to form decorative patterns and mosaics. As well as having a specific definition, the practice of making these paved decorative surfaces has a global spread; as well as in former Portuguese colonies it occurs in Spain, Gibraltar, the US, Canada. Despite this, there’s no standard translation of calçada portuguesa into English. How do I know? Because I’ve been translating poems by João Luis Barreto Guimarães. The last poem of the collection Aberto todo os dias (Quetzal Editores, 2023) has an image of a child using the binary black/ivory division of a mosaic pavement to play a game. My first translation of the poem included these l...
FRIENDSHIP, DIFFERENCE, BEING OUT OF PLACE. I write about being in a foreign country, speaking a new language, and living through cultural differences. Texts in English and Portuguese.