EUGÉNIO DE ANDRADE

Eugénio de Andrade was born in 1923 in Povoa de Atalaia, a small village in Portugal close to the Spanish border. He published his first poem at the age of sixteen, his first book three years later. He has received every literary prize his country offers, as well as several international ones, including, by acclaim, the Portuguese language's most prestigious award, the Camoes Prize (2000), among whose previous winners are Jorge Amado and José Saramago.



THE SMILE

I think it was the smile,
it was the smile who opened the door.
It was the smile with light, much light
inside, I longed to
enter it, take off my clothes, and stay,
naked there within that smile.
To run, to sail, to die within that smile.