Adolfo Correia da Rocha
Adolfo Correia da Rocha, known by the pseudonym Miguel Torga, was born August 12th 1907 in São Martinho de Anta, Vila Real.
He was first arrested in December 1939, in Leiria, following the publication of “O Quarto Dia” and “A Criação do Mundo”, considered by the authorities an uncomfortable testimony about the Spanish Civil War.
Poet, storyteller, memoirist, essayist and playwright, Torga was imprisoned in the Aljube cells for three months, in December 1939. It was in the Aljube Prison that he wrote some of his poems, as is the case of ‘Canção’, which is inscribed along the corridor on the 2nd floor of the Museum. This is how, today, we celebrate his birth.
“He lacks freedom.
This is the only this pain that hurts.
But just because of that
It will no longer be what it was.”
December 30, 1939, Aljube Prison
Images:
Prison file PT-TT-PIDE-E-010-60-11803 Miguel Torga
Photograph ©Joana Hintze, 2nd floor of the Aljube Museum
