Cora Coralina

I was browsing at the feira da Torre de Televisão in Brasília (a permanent outdoor market below the landmark television tower) where they have all manner of quirky shops, when I came across a colorful apron inscribed with a poem by Cora Coralina. I had no idea who this woman was, but I loved the apron and the sentiment:

Recria tua vida,

sempre, sempre.

Remove pedras

e planta roseiras

e faz doces.

Recomeça.

Translation:

Recreate your life,

Always, always.

remove stones

and plant roses

and make sweets.

Restart.

The shop is a delightful mix of t-shirts and aprons and items for home décor, all inscribed with poetry or literary quotations. Tertúlia names its purpose as gathering for cultural purposes, bringing poetry to everyday objects. Their products are handmade, and all are unique. I also discovered they partner with SEBINHO, another of my happy discoveries in Brasília, a wonderfully diverse bookstore, cafe, and cultural center.  

I liked the apron and the snippet of Cora Coralina’s poetry so much that I also bought the t-shirt. Perhaps another goal of Tertúlia is to introduce Brazilian poets to those of us not familiar with their work. And just this small piece of Cora Coralina’s work induced me to learn more about her.

It turns out Cora Coralina is a pen name; she was born Anna Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto Bretas in 1889 in the interior state of Góias, the state where the Federal District of Brasília was carved out when the new capital was established in 1960. She began writing poetry as a fourteen year old girl, but it remained a hobby for most of her life, and she made her living as a confectioner—making sweets. Her work brings music to everyday things and events. She did not publish her first book until she was 76 years old. Despite this, she was a prolific author and came to be regarded as one of Brazil’s most important writers. She died in 1985 at the age of 95.

She said in an interview that a child like her was not understood by adults, and that they wanted her to be a typical child and children in those days were not seen as having any rights. Her love of art and words created difficulties for her. She told an interviewer in her late years that she was “an old muse, a singing locust with this gift of a long life.”

The poetry on my apron is one of her most famous poems, Aninha and Her Stones. The work gives voice to determination to press on despite setbacks, to be determined and resilient, to begin again—always. Hear the poem read in its original Portuguese here.