Quotes from book
Baltasar and Blimunda

Baltasar and Blimunda
José Saramago Original title Memorial do Convento (Portuguese, 1982)

Baltasar and Blimunda is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago.


José Saramago photo

“Once the machine starts to fly, the heavens will be filled with music.”

Voando a máquina, todo o céu será música.
Source: Baltasar and Blimunda (1982), p. 165

José Saramago photo

“Fumbling in total darkness, they reached out to each other, naked, he penetrated her with desire and she received him eagerly, and they exchanged eagerness and desire until their bodies were locked in embrace, their movements in harmony, her voice rising from the depth of her being, his totally submerged, the cry that is born, prolonged, truncated, that muffled sob, that unexpected tear, and the machine trembles and shudders, probably no longer even on the ground but, having rent the screen of brambles and undergrowth, is now hovering at dead of night amid the clouds, Blimunda, Baltasar, his body weighing on hers, and both weighing on the earth, for at last they are here, having gone and returned.”

Em profunda escuridão se procuraram, nus, sôfrego entrou nela, ela o recebeu ansiosa, depois a sofreguidão dela, a ânsia dele, enfim os corpos encontrados, os movimentos, a voz que vem do ser profundo, aquele que não tem voz, o grito nascido, prolongado, interrompido, o soluço seco, a lágrima inesperada, e a máquina a tremer, a vibrar, porventura não está já na terra, rasgou a cortina de silvas e enleios, pairou no alto da noite, entre as nuvens, pesa o corpo dele sobre o dela, e ambos pesam sobre a terra, afinal estão aqui, foram e voltaram.
Source: Baltasar and Blimunda (1982), pp. 255–256

José Saramago photo

“Be content to bless each other, that is all the blessing you need, and how I wish that all blessings were so.”

Abençoem-se antes um ao outro, é quanto basta, pudessem ser todas as bênçãos como essa.
Source: Baltasar and Blimunda (1982), p. 175

José Saramago photo

“Besides the conversation of women, it is dreams that keep the world in orbit.”

Source: Baltasar and Blimunda (1982), p. 107
Context: Besides the conversation of women, it is dreams that keep the world in orbit. But dreams also form a diadem of moons, therefore the sky is that splendour inside a man's head, if his head is not, in fact, his own unique sky.

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