Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Mister President of the Federal Republic of Brazil and dear friend,
Prime Minister,
Members of the Portuguese and Brazilian Governments,
Ambassadors,
Mister Arménio Vieira,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

My first words are to thank His Excellency the President of the Republic of Brazil, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, for having honoured this ceremony with his presence, when visiting Portugal within the programme of the X Luso-Brazilian Summit.

This is a gesture which well reflects the importance that President Lula da Silva has always attributed to the promotion of the Portuguese language, this extraordinary asset that we share with our CPLP fraternity and with an ever greater number of people who, in the four corners of the world, speak and are interested in it.

For the first time since it was set up, this year’s Camões Prize is awarded to an author from Cape Verde. It is without doubt a moment of particular significance and of great joy for the whole of the Portuguese speaking community.

Before going any further I want to express my compliments to the prize winner, poet Arménio Vieira, and congratulate him for this banner, which consecrates his work and places him alongside other names already consecrated by the Portuguese speaking world, such as Miguel Torga or José Craveirinha, Pepetela or Rubem Fonseca.

We all know that the Camões Prize is an individual award that recognizes the talent and the work of an author who has contributed towards the enrichment of the literary and cultural heritage of the Portuguese language. As such, it is above anything else the work of Arménio Vieira to which we are paying tribute today.

But this work has, naturally, its roots in the culture in which the poet belongs and that his poems interpret, with originality and great feeling. For this reason I also want to warmly congratulate the people of Cape Verde who celebrate, this year, the thirty fifth anniversary of their independence and the 550 years of the discovery of their land, and render here my most sincere tribute to the richness of their culture.

A culture where deep African traces are visible, but that equally expresses the traces of the singular, and so often bitter, geography and history of its islands.

At the time when the Camões Prize consecrates the poet Arménio Vieira, it is only fair to remember those who first contributed to the assertion of Cape Verde culture and literature. Names such as those of Baltazar Lopes da Silva and Manuel Lopes, who are no longer amongst us, but had decisive roles in the genesis of this literature which we somehow render tribute here, today.

The so-called Portuguese spoken literatures, their diversity, the unmistakable personality which characterizes each one of them and the international projection of many of its authors – are the undeniable truth that Portuguese has definitely become a global language.

Mister President Lula da Silva,
Mister Arménio Vieira,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Very near here, in that magnificent area filed with History which is the Jerónimos Monastery, are buried, amongst others, the two greatest Portuguese poets who are, simultaneously, two of the greatest figures of universal literature of all times: Luis de Camões and Fernando Pessoa,

It is the universality of the language of Camões that we celebrate today, in each one of the literary works which were composed or blossomed in the interior space of the Portuguese speaking community.

Only in a language with the wealth and plasticity of Portuguese would it be possible to express such a wide range of sensitivities and experiences as those of the peoples who freely chose Portuguese as their official language.

The consolidation of each one of these new literatures, as well as the international recognition of their singularity, is a motive of joy for us all.

But it is equally important to stress, more than ever, the privileged bonds that the existence of a common language made possible between our peoples, as it is to fight for the international recognition of the rightful status that should be granted to the Portuguese language.

Such is demanded by the memory of Camões. The quality of the many literary works written in his language and awarded with his name claims it. This is now the case with the work of Arménio Vieira to whom we are rendering tribute today, and to whom I want to tender my recognition for the contribution he has been giving towards the enrichment of the language which is common to us.

Thank you very much.