Lídia Jorge

Trans. by Margaret Jull COsta

The World’s Childhood

When the ships fell from the sky and the oars
cut through the green of the earth, we advanced
through the water gathering in nets.

The fish leapt up from the waves and when they showed
their scales, clouds of every colour appeared.
The storms came and made the seagulls’ beds.
From those eggs were born clumsy birds
that we held in our hands and stroked.

No serpent ever emerged from them
threatening to bite the young of other species.
Poison did not exist. The great danger flew past us,
over our heads, and we were quite oblivious.
In our paradise we never once met Adam and Eve.
On the contrary—the Sea invaded the Land, forming
six Continents, all the rivers of the Globe, and we didn’t even notice.
In our ignorance, we sat on the sand, eager
to know what a storm would be like,
and thus childhood passed.

Every night we can go back to being two years old.

Margaret Jull Costa has been a literary translator for over thirty years and has translated such writers as Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, Javier Marías and Bernardo Atxaga. In 2013 she was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2014 was made an OBE for services to literature. 

Lídia Jorge is one of Portugal’s foremost writers. She has written eleven novels, two children’s books, five short story collections, and, in 2019, a book of poems. Her work has brought her many prizes, most recently, the 2020 Premio de la Feria del Libro de Guadalajara for writers in Romance languages.