Superb Sentences: Cecília Meireles

A series of beautiful phrases, sentences, and excerpts from Brazilian literature leading up to Brazil’s National Day of the Book on October 29.

From Romanceiro da Inconfidência (“Storybook of the Conspiracy”), a collection of poems published in 1953 about the state of Minas Gerais (including the late 18th century uprising known as the Inconfidência Mineira) by Cecília Meireles: “Liberdade, essa palavra/ que o sonho humano alimenta,/ que não há ninguém que explique/ e ninguém que não entenda.”

Freedom, that word
that the human dream feeds,
that there’s nobody who can explain
and nobody who doesn’t understand