No Gods Live Here: Poems

by Conceição Lima, David Shook (translator)

One of the few book-length poetry collections from São Tomé to appear in English, Lima’s poetry is grounded in place and history of the region . A career-spanning collection from Sao Tomean master Conceicao Lima, No Gods Live Here summons the intricacies of her personal history of the landscape with the complicated lineage of the region. Lima houses the cruelties of the country’s past alongside childhood memories, flora, and fauna. Through vivid imagery, Lima’s deep evocations of São Tomé extend from popular Santomean music to imagery of fishermen on the beach, while ever-aware of the subjective meeting of memory, time, and place. Through poetry, Lima brings past and present together to resurrect hope in human creation and the possibility of metamorphosis.

Genres: Poetry, Sao Tome and Principe, Africa, Adult

250 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 16, 2024

About the author

Maria da Conceição de Deus Lima (Santana, December 8, 1961), also known as Conceição Lima, is a Santomean poet from the town of Santana in São Tomé, one of two islands in the small nation of São Tomé and Príncipe situated in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Africa. She studied journalism in Portugal and worked in radio, television and in the print press in her native country. In 1993, Conceição Lima founded the weekly independent publication O País Hoje (The Country Today) which she directed and wrote for during its circulation. She received a degree in Afro-Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from King's College in London. Lima resides in London where she works as a journalist and producer for the BBC Portuguese Language Services. Her poetry has been published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies in several countries. O Útero da Casa was her first book of poetry and was published in 2004 in Lisbon by the Portuguese publishing house Caminho. Her second book (also poetry), A Dolorosa Raiz do Micondó, was released in 2006 by the same publisher. Some of her work has been translated into English by the Poetry Translation Centre in London.

Lima is a postcolonial writer, one of the few poets who came of age after the independence of her country in 1975. She started writing poems as a teenager and, in 1979, at the age of nineteen, traveled to Angola where she participated in the Sixth Conference of Afro-Asian Writers. She recited some of her poems and was probably one of the youngest participants present. Conceição Lima considers this to be the first phase of her career as a poet. The second phase of her career started with the publication of her poems in newspapers, magazines and anthologies. Additionally some of her work has been translated into English by the Poetry Translation Centre in London.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very powerful collection from Santomean poet Conceição Lima, translated from Portuguese by Shook. The collection resonates despite my not being familiar with the history of this country, partly thanks to a helpful introduction by the translator and some informative endnotes.

A wonderful edition from Phoneme Media, an imprint of Deep Vellum.

[Rhoda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my read the world selection for São Tomé and Principe.

This book of poetry was the only thing in English that I could find by a Santomean author. As someone whose understanding of poetry is about The Cat in the Hat level, I don’t think I can review this and do it justice!

So coming from someone with only a very rudimentary understanding of poetry, I found this collection of poems to be both beautiful and baffling. I admittedly feel like I understood less than half of the poems, however the gentle cadence and word selection was beautiful and could be appreciated even when I didn’t really grasp the meaning of the poem.

Although I personally felt out of my depth with this poetry collection, I feel that a poetry lover or someone who is just much more proficient at understanding poetry would really enjoy this collection. My personal favourite poem in this book was “The Flower”. More a 3.5-3.75 rating for me, but am rounding up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, finally I found a book for São Tomé e Príncipe! Published just a few months ago, this is an incredibly important translation for the country. And it is a beautiful collection of poems. The introduction by the translator Shook set the scene, but the poems do speak for themselves in the way they discuss post-colonial identity. The language of the poems was beautifully chosen, the frequently mentioned landscape features of the island nation make the scenes come to life. Addressing her nation almost like a lover, Conceição Lima paints a vivid picture of the ethnography, history, and heritage of her island.

“Plantation”:
• The dead ask: //
Why do roots sprout from our feet? /
Why do the petals of the cacao trees /
insist on bleeding /
on our nails? //
What was this kingdom that we planted?

And my favourite, “Archipelago”:
• The enigma is some other thing - no gods live here /
Just men and the sea, immovable inheritance.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the heart of the alphabet
The dawn set her monsters free.

[GS · Rating 2 out of 5]

% of poems I understood enough to truly appreciate it = 25% (the appendix of the translation that tries to provide context to non-native readers is sadly wanting)
% rating for this subset = 80% (4/5)

Total score = 20% = 1/5. Rounding up to 2 because 1 makes me feel guilty. I have the caveat that this comes from a reader who was hoping to learn about this nation through this work, but felt that the book didn’t help too much in that regard. I tried googling for added context, that didn’t get me much further.

Those natively from Sao Tome & Principe will probably appreciate this work a lot more.

[Nicole Kroger Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

#readtheworld Sao Tome & Principe

[Anwen Hayward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry in translation is such a hard task. So much of poetry is about selecting the exact right word, carefully pruning your lexis to find the only word that will do, and I can only imagine the challenge that this presents when you’re having to do it all over again in a second language. From the translator’s note, it appears that the translation process here was highly collaborative, with Shook and Lima both working on conveying Lima’s original poems as authentically and musically as possible within the constraints of English, and I think that the collaborative effort paid off here. The writing is beautiful, and each line is rendered with a real care and consideration for rhythm and imagery.

(Full review at The Global Women's Library.)