Carlos Faria was born in Golegã, Ribatejo, Portugal.  Although born in the mainland, Carlos Faria has traveled throughout the archipelago of the Azores and has written extensively about the islands and its people.  He has published various books of poetry and is also represented in anthologies.  In the 1960’s he was one of the founders of the literary supplement Basalto published by the newspaper Correio dos Açores.  He has had a special fondness for the island of S. Jorge.  He lives in mainland Portugal.

                        Island

River of rock:  green its water…

Rains when it rains…and it always rains.

Volcano a body, your body, oh island!

With the torments

The legends are finished, the stories:

Only the past is today

what from mouth to mouth and gesture to gesture

the people awaken within the memory…

Can an island that is of rock

only of rock

be of people only of people?

River of rock

high land tough cloud

falling upon the ocean…

Translated from the Portuguese by Diniz Borges

In On a Leaf of Blue, University of California, Berkeley

            Ilha

Rio de pedra: verde a sua água...

Chove quando chove...e chove sempre.

Vulcão um corpo, teu corpo, ó ilha!

Com as tormentas

acabaram-se as lendas, as histórias:

Só o passado é hoje

o que de boca em boca e gesto em gesto

o povo acorda na memória...

Não pode uma ilha que é de pedra

só de pedra

ser gente só de gente?

Rio de pedra

terra alta nuvem dura

caindo sobre o mar...