De avond van de fado

The Evenings More than twenty years ago Gerrit Komrij heard a fado song in Lisbon. He instantly fell in love with Portugal. Since then, Komrij has become Portuguese but has still remained himself: an inquisitive student, attentive lover, loving executioner. Komrij takes us inside Portuguese culture, where saudade and its expression in fado are to be found. "You listen to the fados, they are not background music… I cannot explain the power of the fado. It is - without wind - singing against the wind. It is sorrow that makes you happy for a moment, a homesickness which makes you feel at home somewhere. It is one sentiment and every sentiment, without being vulgar. It is the song of the whores and the pimps, of the sailors and the ragged who are kings of singing." (quotation from 'A business lunch in Sintra and other Portuguese stories', Amsterdam, 1996).