CORA CORALINA (pseudonym of Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto Brêtas) is one of the most admired Brazilian poets. She was born in the town of Goiás in 1889. She began writing poetry at the age of 14 but published her first book only in 1965. The house in Goiás where she lived, supporting herself as a candy maker, is now preserved as a museum. Her poetry was praised by distinguished authors as Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Jorge Amado.

Her most well-known publications are Poemas dos becos de Goías e estorias mais and Estorias da Casa Velha da Ponte. She is especially well known for her writing on women's issues, life in the state of Goiás, the poverty of Northeastern Brazilians, and the mythology of Afro-Brazilian rituals that many still practice. Her poetry integrates many of the diverse cultures of Brazil. Her contemporaries include Argentine writer Alfonsina Storni, Uruguayan writer Juana de Ibarbourou, and Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Almost all of her books have had more than ten editions and have continued to be reprinted in the years since her passing, in addition to a number of posthumous volumes of her collected writings and personal stories. She died in 1985.

The selection of poems that appear here were submitted in the original Portuguese to Sirena: Poetry, Art, and Criticism by the poet Darcy França Denófrio, and the editor of The Pasticheur, then founding editor of Sirena, published it in the original alongside translations into Spanish, by José Antonio Castellanos-Pazos, and English, by Alexis Levitin.