PERFIL DE LISBOA – LISBON IN PROFILE

Author’s Edition
Price: Out of print

Watercolours and drawings by John O’Connor complemented by texts from Portuguese authors selected by Maria do Carmo Paço d’Arcos. Bilingual edition (Portuguese/English).

Art book 24 x 30 cms, 150 pages, hard cover, illustrated dust-jacket and slip-case, printed on Stockwell paper 160 grs. Publisher: Livro d’Ouro. Limited edition of 400 copies, numbered and signed by the artist. Year of edition: 2004.

I say ‘Lisbon’
When I arrive from the south and cross the river
And the city opens up as if born from its name
It opens and rises in its nocturnal vastness
In its long shimmering of blue and of river
In its rugged body of hills –
I see it better because I say it
Everything is more clearly where it is
Everything shows more clearly what it lacks
Because I say
Lisbon with its name of being and nonbeing
With its meanders of astonishment insomnia and shacks
And its secret theatre sparkle
Its masklike smile of intrigue and complicity
While the wide sea stretches westward
Lisbon swaying like a sailing ship
Lisbon cruelly built next to its own absence
I say the city’s name
I say it to see

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
Translated by Richard Zenith

Lisbon emerges, white

Lisbon emerges, white, next to the Tagus blue;
Lisbon of the early ships,
Of ivory built, over hills of gold.
See how the wide estuary (is it dream or reality?)
Beneath divine Azure bursts into a thousand wings!
It’s a host of seagulls that hover and alight on the waves,
As sky and golden sun and water blend together
In chimeric hues!

Teixeira de Pascoaes

The beggar

He crossed by me and approached me in a street in Baixa,
A badly dressed creature, a professional beggar one could see,
Who took a fancy for me and I for him;
And reciprocally, with overflowing largesse, I gave him all I had
(With the exception, of course, of what I carried in my money pocket:
I am no fool nor Russian novelist, eager,
Yes for romanticism, indeed, but let’s not hurry….).

Fernando Pessoa

John O’Connor was born in London. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art where he was awarded two drawing prizes and graduated with a first class honours degree in Fine Art. This was followed by two years of postgraduate study at the Slade School. His work is represented in various private and public collections in Portugal and England including the Selecções do Reader’s Digest, Grupo Pestana, Hotel da Lapa, Museu da Cidade de Lisboa, Câmara Municipal de Sintra, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the private collection of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.

Maria do Carmo Paço d’Arcos was born in Lisbon into a family of celebrated literary tradition. She has worked in film production for many years. Recently, she has been translating English poets and organising art exhibitions.