Fernando José Branco Pinto do Amaral is a poet, literary critic and university teacher.
He holds a Ph.D. in Portuguese Literature. Since 1987 he teaches at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon and is currently Professor of Romance Literatures.
He translated into Portuguese Les Fleurs du Mal from Baudelaire, Poèmes Saturniens from Verlaine and all Jorge Luis Borges’ poetry.
As well as having published essays, a novel and short stories, he collaborated in several literary magazines and newspapers. His poetry collections include, among other titles, Poesia Reunida (2000), Pena Suspensa (2004), A Luz da Madrugada, (2007). His most recent novel is O Segredo de Leonardo Volpi (Dom Quixote, 2009) .
The greatest motivation in his life
was perhaps curiosity.
It drove him on: he approached
...
Tonight I died many times over, waiting
for a sudden dream to come
and dance in the dark with my soul
as long as it were you who led
...
I don't know what a spirit is. No one
knows in depth the light of his own abyss
as at night the wind opens
the infinite doors of an empty
...
You'll be back here, you'll feel
the world's stupidity like a pendulum
striking the right hours
in the rhythm of days, weeks,
...