Gonçalo M. Tavares and the new uses for the usual words

Oriental philosophy and literature are the driving force behind Gonçalo M. Tavares’ new books. “Storm and Engine” and “Brief Notes on the East”.

Entering the core of words written many hundreds of years ago by the masters of Eastern thought and extracting new uses and meanings from them, as if they were “modern eyes at the rhythm of ancient slowness”. It was the purpose that impelled Gonçalo M. Tavares to write his new books, as he explains in the preamble to “Tempestade e motor”.

The hundred haikus that make up the volume reject any imprisonment that we normally associate with the form of this singular poetic cultivation marked by brevity, with its 17 syllables interpolated in three verses.
But what moves the author of “Atlas of the body and imagination” is, even more than the slow pace and rhythm, the effort – very present in Eastern philosophy and literature – to “illuminate, concentrate, make each word stronger “. Accessing the root of thought and action with extreme verbal economy, in short.

The purpose is often fulfilled throughout these pages, in which the phrases sound like flashes that illuminate our spirit in a fleeting but often impressive way. If “an angel / is not enough / to save a country”, let us bear in mind that “until eternity / needs attention / – dust on the table”. After all, “globe / map and hand / – (are) the same scale”.

Brief notes on the East”, the author’s other title published simultaneously, also (per)follows, albeit in broader ways, an inquiry into everyday life from the possible lessons and teachings that we can draw from these cultures.

In this meta-book of overcoming genres, where we find “fiction, essay, poetry, fragment and diary”, Tavares writes from metropolises like Istanbul, Tokyo or Kyoto to confront herself (and us) with the astonishment or shudder that run through her , if we do it merely from the point of view of the western tourist. Embracing the conviction that nothing human is alien to us at all, we embark on a journey of knowledge and delight.

“Brief notes on the East”
Gonçalo M. Tavares
Water Clock

“Storm and Engine”
Gonçalo M. Tavares
Water Clock