Pain and Light

Silva, Acúrcio Correia da, 1889-1925Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 47K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Dôr e Luz by Acúrcio Correia da SilvaAuthor: Silva, Acúrcio Correia da, 1889-1925,Language: Portuguese, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Dec 11, 2008

Editor's review

Dôr e Luz is a poetry collection by the Portuguese poet Acúrcio Correia da Silva (1889–1925), made freely available in electronic form by Project Gutenberg. Chinese readers know little about this Portuguese poet, who died young, and this book is a direct entry point to his poetry. The title may be understood as "Pain and Light," suggesting an emotional tone that moves back and forth between personal sorrow and hope, and it is suitable as a sample for understanding Portuguese poetry in the early twentieth century. The electronic edition is in the original Portuguese, with no Chinese translation alongside, so reading requires a dictionary or translation tools, which in turn gives the reading process a dual character of language learning and literary appreciation. It is advisable to treat it as a short poetry anthology and not to read too much at once; choose a few poems and read them repeatedly, paying attention to rhythm and imagery. Since there are no annotations or introduction, beginners would do best to use it alongside materials on Portuguese literary history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature enthusiasts interested in Portuguese poetry who are willing to read the original
Learners of Portuguese who hope to build language sense through short poems
Researchers interested in early twentieth-century European poetry in less widely spoken languages
Readers who enjoy reading free public-domain books on electronic devices

Not a good fit for

Readers who read only Chinese and do not read foreign-language originals with the help of tools
Beginning readers who expect detailed annotations, introductions, and facing translations
Readers who prefer long narrative or plot-driven works

Reading tips

First read through the table of contents and select a few poems whose titles or opening lines attract you for close reading; there is no need to read from beginning to end in order.
Prepare a Portuguese dictionary or translation tools, look up key image words one by one, and note words that recur.
After finishing each poem, write two or three sentences in Chinese about your impressions to help sort out the poem's emotional movement.
Read alongside a brief history of Portuguese literature to understand the poet in the context of his time.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or in the original Portuguese?

This is an e-book in the original Portuguese published by Project Gutenberg, with no Chinese translation. Reading it requires some foundation in Portuguese or the help of dictionaries and translation tools. It suits readers who want direct contact with the original and is not suitable for readers who rely entirely on Chinese translations.

Who is the author, and why is he not very commonly seen?

The author is Acúrcio Correia da Silva (1889–1925), a Portuguese poet who died at around the age of thirty-six and whose works have not circulated widely. There is very little translation or introduction of him in the Chinese-speaking world, so this book can serve as direct material for understanding his poetry, but readers should not expect ready-made background introductions.

What is the reading experience of the electronic edition like? Are there annotations?

The Project Gutenberg edition is a plain-text e-book, easy to open on a phone, computer, or e-reader, but it has no editor's annotations, introduction, or glossary. Unfamiliar words or historical allusions must be looked up on your own. It is advisable to use it with an external dictionary and to take reading notes to supplement background information.

Is it suitable for learning Portuguese?

It can be used as supplementary material. The poems are short and the language condensed, making them easy to recite repeatedly and to use for building vocabulary, but poetic language involves omission and inversion, and its grammar is not necessarily standard. It is advisable to use it after acquiring basic grammar and to practice alongside prose readings for more reliable results.

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About the author

Silva, Acúrcio Correia da, 1889-1925 Author · Portuguese · 1889–1925

Acúrcio Correia da Silva (1889–1925) was a Portuguese poet born in the Azores. He died young in 1925, at the age of only thirty-six. This catalogue holds just one of his works, Dôr e Luz (meaning “Pain and Light”), and publicly available information is limited, making it difficult to describe his life and oeuvre in detail. From what is known, his poetic activity was connected with the local cultural environment of the Azores, and the title of his work suggests an interest in opposing themes such as suffering and hope, darkness and light, possibly with a lyrical and contemplative tendency. Because of his early death, the number of his works and their circulation were probably fairly limited, and he is not a widely known figure in Portuguese literary history; nonetheless, his poems remain a reference point for the study of early twentieth-century Azorean literature.