Tag Archives: Rio de Janeiro/Brazil

Passage from Warrior of the Light: A Manual by Paulo Coelho

08 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by in Poetry

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My Poetry Corner January 2017 features a passage from Warrior of the Light: A Manual by Brazilian lyricist and novelist, Paulo Coelho, born in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Southeast Brazil. While Coelho’s background as a songwriter endows his prose with an engaging lyricism, the featured work is not a poem.

Warrior of the Light: A Manual, published in 1997, is written in the form of short philosophical passages. Drawing on his own life experiences and ancient Eastern wisdom, Coelho invites each one of us to become a Warrior of the Light: someone capable of understanding the miracle of life, of fighting to the last for something he believes in.

This is not a normal year. We must prepare ourselves to enter the battlefield to defend our civil and human rights under threat.

Every Warrior of the light has felt afraid of going into battle.
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“Sonnet of the Friend” by Brazilian Poet Vinicius de Moraes

07 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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Garota de Ipanema Restaurant - Ipanema Beach - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Garota de Ipanema Restaurant – Ipanema Beach – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Photo Credit: The Real Rio de Janeiro Blog

 

My Poetry Corner August 2016, featuring the poem “Soneto do Amigo” (Sonnet of the Friend) by Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980), is dedicated to a dear friend who is facing a challenging period.

Born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil until 1960, Vinicius de Moraes is the poet of love and passion. At twenty years, he published his first book of poetry. Two years later, his second collection won Brazil’s National Poetry Award. A diplomat during the period 1946 to 1969, he served in Los Angeles, Paris, and Montevideo. He married nine times and had five children.

Love is a memory
that time doesn’t kill,
the beloved song
happy and absurd…
[“A você, com amor” (To you, with love) by Vinicius de Moraes]

In the 1960s, Vinicius de Moraes contributed his talents as a lyricist and musician to the emergence of the bossa nova which incorporated elements of Brazilian samba and African American jazz. These musical collaborations gave birth to numerous classical Brazilian songs – the most famous being “Garota de Ipanema” (Girl from Ipanema) with Tom Jobim. Continue reading →