It is 4 pm in the afternoonThe sun is fading in the horizon
leaving that tender touch on your skin
A medical student in London is making tea
A street called Pont Street, historically there might have been a bridge there
across from Beauchamp place where there used to be a Lebanese Restaurant
A london radio station playing World Music, a place to buy music called Steins
That was the introduction to the song Sodade and Cabo Verdian music
Mornas and Coladeras
Fado strains of longings
African beat from Angola and Guinea
and Cesaria Evora
Such simple wordsloaded with emotions
departures departures
for Lisboa for Boston
Oh Mar Oh Mar
a barrier and a hope
Brasil is so far away
That sense of saudade, the sense of having lost something that you never had or even had a chance to enjoy, is always present. Others with their words bring it back to me or it arises in me on a day like this in Miami where paradoxically an isolation has brought on the boredom of comfort .
While literature from Spanish America brought Magical Realism into life, it was Brasilian movies that brought back the same sensation.
I had been introduced to Orfeo Negro which had become a cult movie and was shown on weekends in Australia. When I first arrived in USA at an University town, the student cinema showed a variety of movies from around the world.
one stands out in my memory:
It was sheer magic for me. But I could not create that magic in my multiple visits to Brasil. Magical realism grows out of the harsh reality on the ground, I was to learn later.
Many other moments remain in memory, that come to haunt, Nacib played by Marcello Mastroianni, filmed in Paraty, which itself is a dream like location, Dona Flor...
but none other made an impression on me like
Central do Brasil
Fernanda Montenegro
No dia que você quiser lembrar de mim, dá uma olhada no retratinho que a gente tirou junto.
Eu digo isso porque tenho medo que um dia você também me esqueça.
Tenho saudade do meu pai, tenho saudade de tudo
Tenho Saudade de tudo
with tears in my heart full of saudade, dedicated to M in Bauru, Sao Paolo, Brasil.
