Florbela Espanca quotes

Florbela Espanca was a Portuguese poet celebrated for her passionate and deeply personal verse. Her work is associated with early 20th-century literary modernism and themes of love, longing, and female identity. She is remembered as one of Portugal’s most important female literary voices. Here are 13 of her quotes:

My love! My lover! Beloved Friend! Grab this wondrous, fleeting moment, Drink it inside me, Let's drink it together to the end! [...] And upon returning, love... Taking mysterious paths along the meadows On grassy carpets on the forest floor, We will make a star of our two shadows. (Florbela Espanca)
What kind of magic potion Did you give me from that jar? That I forget who I am But always know who you are... View quote
Florbela Espanca
I dream I am the chosen Poet, Who knows all there is to know on Earth, The one whose inspiration's pure and perfect, And captures infinity in a verse!I dream a verse of mine has all the brightness To light the whole world! And it will please Even those who long and die of sadness! And even wise, unhappy souls it will appease. View quote
Florbela Espanca
All is so calm and chaste, so like a dream. That looking at this masterpiece of God, I ask myself Where is there a painter, an artist so supreme,So profoundly wise as to unfurl A canvas with a more arresting scene, More delicate and beautiful in this World? View quote
Florbela Espanca
To be a poet is to be taller, to be bigger Than men! It is to bite as if you're kissing! It is to give alms, although you are a beggar like King of the Realm where only pain is missing!It is to have a thousand desires for splendor And do not even know what we want! It is to have inside yourself a flaming star, It is to have the condor's mighty claw and wing!It is to be hungry, to be thirsty of Infinity! By helmet, golden and satin mornings... It is to condense the world into one lonely cry!And it is loving you, thus, hopelessly... And it is you being soul, and blood, and life in me And tell it singing to everyone! View quote
Florbela Espanca
The soul of a poetess is all made of light, like that of the stars: it doesn't blind the onlooker, it illuminates... View quote
Florbela Espanca
All of my love letters are nothing more than the realization of my need to make phrases. View quote
Florbela Espanca
The love I feel for you Is so deep and runs so true That I even love the longing That I feel because of you. View quote
Florbela Espanca
Kiss my hands, Love, make them feel caressed Kiss them as if we two were only siblings, Two birds singing in the sun and in the same nest.Kiss them, Love!... The wildest fantasy is at my fingertips To hold those kisses locked within my hands The kisses that I dreamed were for my lips! View quote
Florbela Espanca
I want to love, to love heedlessly! To love for the sake of loving: Here...there... This one, that other and everyone... To love! To love! And love no one! [...] He who loves someone and says that love's fire Can last a lifetime is nothing but a liar! View quote
Florbela Espanca
Your hands tremble as they caress and woo me... My amber body, harmonious and young, Is like a jasmin vine deliciously high-strung Drunk with sunlight, with pleasure and perfume! (Florbela Espanca)
To live is to not know that one is living. View quote
Florbela Espanca
If you came to see me in the evening, That time of mild and magic weariness, When nighttime softly covers everything, And took me in your arms with tenderness. [...] And my lips are like a flower in the sun... When my eyes are tightly closed with strong desire... And I hold out my arms to bring you near... View quote
Florbela Espanca