This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders
Portugal, Haven of Kale
The arrival of Bertus Dijk’s first book brought a flood of childhood memories. Even then, I found Portugal to be a dark country, the darkest I had ever visited in my youth.
It wasn’t until 1975 that the merciless church dictatorship came to an end, even though it was dressed up with beautiful words. If you read those two papal encyclicals, everything seems fine on the surface. Pretty words that hide monsters. Only recently have the sexual scandals been investigated, but just like in the Netherlands, the investigations were carried out by the church and religious figures themselves—a cover-up, essentially. In the Netherlands, it was Deetman who was tasked with putting out the fires.
What I haven’t been able to process is the vast slum near Lisbon that I visited back then.
Why don’t those resistance poems truly captivate me? Perhaps they are too traumatic, too straightforward, or maybe it’s due to Bertus Dijk’s translation skills. Or perhaps Portuguese poetry just doesn’t resonate with me; I don’t even like Pessoa. So I don’t belong with those older poets who dream of opening a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of the Algarve. Christian friends who want to write a twenty-eight-volume biography in Komrij’s house seem to fit better in that dark land than I ever would. Even Ronaldo with his golden shoes—he’s like a shining figure from a nightmare.
And let’s not even start on what happened in Angola and other Portuguese colonies. Bertus Dijk writes about this frequently, and I eagerly await his philosophy book. I don’t think he was a great translator, but he was at least a man with his heart in the right place. That seems to be just as valuable, if not more.
The images from 1970s Portugal remain vivid in my mind. The old men perched on ledges, the nude sunbathers, the skull I didn’t dare to unearth. Bleeding knees, worn-out marble. More about the slum tomorrow.
(And of course, the modern images of Portugal: BBB Lientje and Don Mossad Arturio
sipping wine, thinking of the Great Rieu and Andre van Duin…)
Martijn, 12-09-2024