SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER was born in Oporto in 1919 and lived in Lisbon from her university days onwards. Her first book of poems was published in 1944, her twelfth and most recent in 1994. She published two books of stories, half a dozen books for children, and translations of Dante and Shakespeare. She was a public figure, having opposed the Salazar regime and -- once it was toppled -- continued to speak out on key social and political issues. She died in 2004.