"And what purpose did all that suffering serve? What was it all for?
Nothing he decides. Not yet. None of that sacrifice will be worth a single escudo unless S. can tell the world about what Vevoda has done and what he is capable of doing."
Escudo, as per Wikipedia, is:
"The escudo is a unit of currency. Historically it was used in Spain, Portugal, and in their colonies in South America, Asia, and Africa.[1] It is still used in Cape Verde to this day. Escudo is Portuguese and Spanish for "shield"."
The fact that S. uses escudo in his thoughts would indicate that:
1- S. is from any of the regions where the escudo was in circulation and the currency is embedded into his memory. Here is a full list as per Wikipedia:
Circulating[edit]
- Cape Verdean escudo (1914 - present)
Obsolete[edit]
- Angolan escudo (1914 - 1928 and 1958 - 1977)
- Chilean escudo (1960 - 1975)
- Mozambican escudo (1914 - 1980)
- Portuguese escudo (1911 - 1999)
- Portuguese Guinean escudo (1914 - 1975)
- Portuguese Indian escudo (1958 - 1961)
- Portuguese Timorese escudo (1959 - 1976)
- São Tomé and Príncipe escudo (1914 - 1977)
- Spanish escudo (1535/1537 - 1833 and 1864 - 1869)
2- One of the two cities S. had been to up to that point in the story, "A city where river meets sea" and "B____" used that currency and that's where S. picked it up.
I should mention that the work is in translation by FX Caldeira who is from Brazil. She would be familiar with an escudo. It is possible that the choice of word here is made by Caldeira and not Straka himself. Just a possibility....
ReplyDeleteGood point!
DeleteEscudo may have been intentional. I found the Portuguese poet, Luis de Camoes and the Rock of Lisbon. I know Jen says it all goes back to Calais, but I seem to be getting pointed to the Portuguese.
ReplyDeleteI also found interesting this description of Cape Verdes from Wikipedia: "Ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, they grew prosperous and often attracted privateers and pirates, among them Sir Francis Drake, a corsair privateering under Letter of marque granted by the English crown who twice sacked the (then) capital Ribeira Grande in the 1580s. The islands were also visited by Charles Darwin's expedition in 1832."
Delete