Daria

  LAST NIGHT. Last night was painful. Unlike the beautiful dream of lavender that I have already told you about, the dream of last night brought me to a state of confusion, guilt, and never-ending images of my dead father and grandmother. Of Isabel too. Could I have saved them? I should have saved them. Their lingering souls danced around me in circles of light or darkness, making me aware that there is more than what I see when I am awake and blinded by the sun. I don’t know if they were happy or mournful, happy or sad—or just disappointed. I don’t know if they love me—or if they can forgive me.

  AT PEARSON. I am waiting for my flight to Porto. I am going for a visit, but I know I will return because this country is good. This country is good, and the other’s credit is in the junk bin. Just yesterday they sold EDP, the national hydro company, to the Chinese. I also hear that the Angolans are gaining ground, that the president and his daughter are buying old beautiful palaces in Viseu. This is the same ancient city where Viriato the Lusitanian, a shepherd and a fierce warrior, fought against the Romans, only to be killed because one of his own was playing for both sides, a man wearing a mask. As for Socrates, he was thrown out and is currently studying philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. How times change. I write poems on the plane, praying for our salvation—because I love this country too.

  I am Daria, looking for Daria. If you help me, I may succeed.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Ontario Arts Council for a small grant provided.

  Quotations used at the beginning by the following authors: Clarice Lispector, Roland Barthes, and Lemony Snicket.

  A version of the story “The Mountain Musician” was published in Portuguese in Irene Marques’s story collection Habitando na Metáfora do Tempo (Edium Editores, 2009), translated by the author.

  Versions of the poems “Passing the Passing,” “The Curious Book,” and “The Days” have been published in Irene Marques’s poetry collection The Perfect Unravelling of the Spirit (Tsar Publications, 2012).

  Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira, novel by José Saramago, published in 1995.

  O Dia dos Prodígios, novel by Lídia Jorge, published in 1979.

  The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas) by Luís de Camões, published in 1572.

  Sagrada Esperança, poetry collection by Agostinho Neto, published in 1974.

  A Mercy, novel by Toni Morrison, published in 2008.

  Peau noire, masques blancs, book by Frantz Fanon, published in 1952.

  The River Between, novel by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, published in 1965.

  Head of a Young Man of Self Portrait (1629), painting by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.

  Head of Christ (1648), painting by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.

  Guernica (1937), painting by Pablo Picasso.

  Mystic Nativity (1500-1), painting by Sandro Botticelli.

  “Grândola, Vila Morena,” song by Zeca Afonso, released in 1971, translator unknown.

  “The Colour of the Sunset” is Irene Marques’s translation of Ivan Lins’s song “A cor do pôr do sol,” released in 2000.

  “On Love: Literary Images of a Phenomenology of Love in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s The River Between,” academic article by Elias Bongmba, published in 2001.

  Quotation from My Father’s Wives (As Mulheres do Meu Pai), a novel by José Eduardo Agualusa, published in 2007, translation by Irene Marques.

  The story related to Queen Saint Isabel and King Dom Dinis is partly based on historical figures and facts.

  The line “he has no nation but his imagination” is based on a line from Derek Walcott’s poem “The Schooner Flight” in Collected Poems 1948-1984.

  The statement, “I am not here to cure the sick. I am here only to sign death certificates” by Dr. Carlos Montealva (Tarrafal’s Doctor), is based on real statements made by the Portuguese writer António Lobo Antunes, who served as a medical doctor in the colonial war in Angola. The persona of the doctor in this novel is partially based on Lobo Antunes.

  The articles “Neutrality by Agreement: Portugal and the British Alliance in World War II” (1998) by economics historian Joaquim da Costa Leite and “Portugal and the Nazi Gold: The ‘Lisbon Connection’ in the Sales of Looted Gold by the Third Reich” (1999) by historian and journalist António Louçã and Ansgar Schäfer, and the book Hitler e Salazar: Comércio em Tempos de Guerra,1940-1944 (2000) also by António Louçã were used as background sources to understand the complex relations between Portugal, the Allies, and the Axis, and the commercial transactions between Portugal and Germany during World War II.

  Some parts of the letter written by Salazar to his cousin Arsénio in this novel and the letters by Roosevelt and Churchill to Salazar referenced in that letter, are based on some statements made in an actual letter sent by Roosevelt to Salazar in 1941 and a telegram sent by British Diplomat to Portugal, Sir Ronald Campbell, in 1943, to the American government—as they appear in the above noted article by Joaquim da Costa Leite. However, the letter is mostly fictional.

  Photo: Dan Abramovici Photography

  Irene Marques is a bilingual writer (English and Portuguese) and Lecturer at Ryerson University in the English Department, where she teaches literature and creative writing. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, a Masters in French Literature and Comparative Literature and a BA (Hon.) in French Language and Literature all from the University of Toronto—and a Bachelor of Social Work from Ryerson University. Her literary publications include the poetry collections Wearing Glasses of Water (2007), The Perfect Unravelling of the Spirit (2012), and The Circular Incantation: An Exercise in Loss and Findings (2013); the Portuguese language short-story collection Habitando na Metáfora do Tempo: Crónicas Desejadas (2009) and the novel My House is a Mansion (2015). Her academic publications include, among others, the manuscript Transnational Discourses on Class, Gender and Cultural Identity (Purdue University Press, 2011) and numerous articles in international journals or scholarly collectives, including African Identities: Journal of Economics, Culture and Society; Research in African Literatures; A Companion to Mia Couto; Letras & Letras; InterDISCIPLINARY: Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies; African Studies; and Portuguese Studies Review. Her Portuguese-language novel, Uma Casa no Mundo, won the 2019 Imprensa Nacional/Ferreira de Castro Prize and is now published by Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda. She lives in Toronto. www.irenemarques.net