Maíra Mendes Galvão
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mmendesgalvao.bsky.social
Maíra Mendes Galvão
@mmendesgalvao.bsky.social
Translator. PhD candidate @ UMass Amherst. Early Modern Iberia, Translation Theory, Premodern Women. FLAD/BNP Summer Fellow 2025.
I miss translating literature so much. last week I read a chapter from henry berlin’s “alone together” for @albertlloret.bsky.social’s class and couldn’t resist trying to translate the ausiàs march excerpts into portuguese.
here’s one example (lines 9-12) from poem XIII.
October 29, 2025 at 2:56 PM
detail from the house of the fountains (1st-2nd C.) in the ruins of conimbriga roman archaeological site near coimbra, in portugal. taken by me in august this year. #MosaicMonday
September 22, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I really like this picture taken by the amazing Raluca Tanasescu @ecoart.bsky.social at #Trextuality2Conference. It was great to be back in Galway and I was happy as a clam sharing a panel with Mairéad Byrne and Xiaojing Zeng.
September 19, 2025 at 3:40 PM
It was lovely to share a session today with Mairéad Byrne, whose academic and poetic work I admire. #trextuality2conference
September 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Trextuality 2 keynotes: Karen Bennett yesterday and @piotrblum.bsky.social today. Amazing talks both! #trextuality2conference
September 5, 2025 at 6:41 PM
In Dublin now after 3 months in Portugal. Heading to Galway on Wednesday for #TrextualityII! Beautiful day today with a look around Howth then the rolling hills and mountains of Killakee. I LOVED the marshy boggy vegetation there.
August 31, 2025 at 9:58 PM
17th century hermitage in the Buçaco National Park, once a Carmelite desert belonging to the Santa Cruz do Buçaco male monastery. The presence of women in the area was forbidden by Pope Gregory XV. No, I’m not the author of the graffiti!
August 18, 2025 at 8:11 AM
What perfect albums came out when you were 16? (1997)

(& there was more… Elliott Smith, Blur, Björk, Yo la Tengo, Macca’s Flaming Pie, SPIRITUALIZED, …etc.)

(even though mine came out 30 years later, I am happy with the ones on the quoted post!)
July 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
to hell with false modesty: I took some amazing pictures at Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal today, but this was not one of them.
July 18, 2025 at 3:42 PM
mothwork selection. from “camino de perfección”, teresa de ávila. this copy printed in 1584 in portugal. #BibliotecaNacionalDePortugal #EarlyModernArchives #16thCentury #FLAD
July 15, 2025 at 7:26 PM
There is relatively little reception material about Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda, and this book cites her a few times. This fact wasn’t on the digital catalog or anywhere else I’d seen, so I’m glad I took a chance. #FLAD #BibliotecaNacionalDePortugal #EarlyModernWomen #17thCentury #19thCentury
July 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
would anyone like to venture a guess or two? this is an inventory from 1646 written in Portuguese. this excerpt is the first thing written under “libraria”, the library section. I’m stuck in those 2 highlighted words or expressions.
July 7, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I live dangerously close to a wonderful bookstore here in lisbon – castro e silva – and have already been doing some damage to my meager budget. a few classics for good measure plus a 19th century guide to bussaco, complete with a florilegium of poems about the area. chuffed!
July 2, 2025 at 4:05 PM
it’s not the tagus, but I’ve come to treasure this little slice of the outside world that I get when I’m working at the table/desk in my lisbon temporary home.
June 26, 2025 at 1:12 PM
mediations
June 25, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I’m a member of the slow poetry club, but I do publish sometimes. glad to have 2 poems in this excellent são paulo journal — w/ poets from diff. parts of brazil & from abroad. amazing company! this issue’s theme is “lies” and I have 1 shorty and 1 longy. the long one is called CARMINA PATRÂNIA. 😏
June 24, 2025 at 6:36 PM
June 23, 2025 at 1:19 PM
the fourth copy of Soledades de Buçaco I’ve examined (what an embarrassment of riches!) was not really available, and it’s probably because some of the pages are either being torn apart or held together by encroaching shadows. the words on the other side here breach the caliginous fog, ghosts alit.
June 20, 2025 at 12:59 PM
view from the beautiful gardens at #FLAD — Fundação Luso-Americana pra o Desenvolvimento, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. it was such a nice reception that I forgot to take pictures of the beautiful architecture and landscaping with its flowers and rills and different vantage points.
June 17, 2025 at 7:26 PM
the tranquil inscrutability of his visage: when one reads these strange pages of one long gone one feels that one is at one with one who once…
June 16, 2025 at 10:13 PM
three flavors.
June 12, 2025 at 4:14 PM
earlier today, somewhere in lisbon, a brazilian tried to mcgyver herself some percolator coffee.
June 12, 2025 at 10:10 AM
where do the pages fall open when you prop a book lightly? this precious copy of Soledades de Buçaco at the National Library of Portugal has a “desire part” on romance X — a poetic rendering of discalced carmelite monastery life. the pages are also more translucent. #FLAD #BNP #FLADBNPfellowship
June 12, 2025 at 9:41 AM
I’m calling these “mothwork cutouts”
June 11, 2025 at 1:53 PM
an awkwardly graceful translation I worked on today to celebrate june 10, dia de camões, dia de portugal.
June 10, 2025 at 10:48 PM