Raised from the Ground (49 page)

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* An ironic reference to the first line of Luís Vaz de Camões’s poem
The Lusiads,
Portugal’s great epic, published in 1572. It glorifies the great Portuguese navigators, who set sail to discover new worlds. It is, of course, also an echo of the opening line of
The Aeneid.

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* The expression in Portuguese is “em Abril aguas mil”—literally, “in April a thousand waters”—because April is traditionally a rainy month. This is Saramago’s version of that familiar expression.

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* The Largo do Carmo barracks was where Marcelo Caetano (appointed prime minister after Salazar suffered a stroke) took refuge, only to find himself surrounded by revolutionary troops.

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* Presumably a reference to an incident that took place during the Carnation Revolution in 1974 near the PIDE headquarters in Rua António Maria Cardoso, where a few desperate PIDE agents opened fire on the troops and the crowds surrounding the building. Four people in the crowd were killed. These were the only casualties in an otherwise bloodless coup.

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* These figures appeared on the bank notes of the time.

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