Category Archives: Brazil

“International Congress of Fear” by Brazilian Poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade

05 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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Statue of Carlos Drummond de Andrade - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro

Bronze Statue of Carlos Drummond de Andrade – Copacabana – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Photo Credit: Viagens Vamos Nessa! (Alexandre Macieira/Riotur)

 

My Poetry Corner August 2018 features the poem “International Congress of Fear” (Congresso Internacional do Medo) by Brazilian poet, journalist, and literary critic Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987), born in Itabira in Minas Gerais, Southeast Brazil. Considered one of the most influential Brazilian poets of the twentieth century, Drummond remains well-loved by the people for his humility and concern with the plight of modern man and struggle for freedom and dignity. 

Home of Carlos Drummond de Andrade - Itabira - Minas Gerais - Brazil

Home of Carlos Drummond de Andrade – Itabira – Minas Gerais – Brazil
Photo Credit: Passeios.org

 

At nineteen, Drummond began his writing career as a columnist for the Diário de Minas newspaper. At his parents’ insistence, he qualified as a pharmacist in 1925 but never practiced the profession. Instead, he cofounded a literary journal and joined the Brazilian Modernist movement. After entering the public service in 1934, he was transferred to Rio de Janeiro where he worked in the Ministry of Education & Public Health, then the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service. Continue reading →

“Sadness has no end” by Brazilian Poet Eli Macuxi

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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Cereia by Carmezia Emiliano - Indigenous Macuxi - Roraima - Brazil

My Poetry Corner September 2017 features the poem “Sadness has no end” (Tristeza não tem fim) by Brazilian poet and educator Elisangela Martins, who self-identifies as Eli Macuxi or Elimacuxi. She teaches history and art criticism at the Federal University of Roraima located in Boa Vista, capital of the state.

Fascinated by verse since childhood, Elimacuxi began writing poetry in fifth grade. At fifteen, she dreamed of having her work read and studied by others. “But the desire was totally blunted by the pessimistic awareness of reality,” confides the poet on her blog. “I was a skinny teenager, without luck of getting a job, studying at a night school on the periphery, ‘daughter of a drunkie,’ with lots of younger siblings. To be a writer? Poet? It was laughable.”

While she earned her Bachelor’s degree and then Masters in History, her love for poetry never waned. In 2013, she published her first poetry collection, Love For Those Who Hate (Amor Para Quem Odeia), which portrays love in its various forms of human experience. Continue reading →

Patativa do Assaré: Brazil’s Popular Oral Poet

04 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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Patativa do Assare seated in front of his hut in Assare - Ceara - Brazil

My Poetry Corner June 2017 features the poem “The Peasant Farmer and the Factory Worker” (O Agregado e o Operário) by Antônio Gonçalves da Silva, known as Patativa do Assaré (1909-2002), a popular Brazilian oral poet, improviser of oral verse, composer, singer, and guitar player.

The son of poor peasant farmers eking out a subsistence livelihood in the semi-arid hinterlands, known as the sertão, of the Northeast State of Ceará, Patativa began working at an early age on his family’s small plot of land. At the age of four, he lost his sight in one eye due to lack of medical assistance. With his father’s death four years later, he had to work as a farmhand to help his family, leaving him no time to attend school. During his six months of formal education, he learned to read and write.

God was his Master; Nature was his teacher.

Sertao Nordestino - Northeast Brazil (2)Sertão Nordestino – Northeast Brazil  [Photo Credit: poesiafaclube.com]

 

I was born listening to songs
of birds in my mountain terrain
and seeing wonderful marvels
that the beautiful woodlands enclose.
That is where I grew up
watching and learning
from the book of nature
where God is most visible
the heart most sensitive
and life has more purity.
 Continue reading →

“Sonnet of the Friend” by Brazilian Poet Vinicius de Moraes

07 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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Garota de Ipanema Restaurant - Ipanema Beach - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Garota de Ipanema Restaurant – Ipanema Beach – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Photo Credit: The Real Rio de Janeiro Blog

 

My Poetry Corner August 2016, featuring the poem “Soneto do Amigo” (Sonnet of the Friend) by Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980), is dedicated to a dear friend who is facing a challenging period.

Born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil until 1960, Vinicius de Moraes is the poet of love and passion. At twenty years, he published his first book of poetry. Two years later, his second collection won Brazil’s National Poetry Award. A diplomat during the period 1946 to 1969, he served in Los Angeles, Paris, and Montevideo. He married nine times and had five children.

Love is a memory
that time doesn’t kill,
the beloved song
happy and absurd…
[“A você, com amor” (To you, with love) by Vinicius de Moraes]

In the 1960s, Vinicius de Moraes contributed his talents as a lyricist and musician to the emergence of the bossa nova which incorporated elements of Brazilian samba and African American jazz. These musical collaborations gave birth to numerous classical Brazilian songs – the most famous being “Garota de Ipanema” (Girl from Ipanema) with Tom Jobim. Continue reading →

“Eden Hades” by Brazilian Poet Olga Savary

08 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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House of Eleven Windows - Historic Center - Belem - State of Para - Brazil

“House of Eleven Windows” – Historic Center – 18th Century Architecture
Former residence of a sugar plantation owner
Belém – State of Pará – Brazil
Photo Credit: Brazil Ministry of Tourism

 

My Poetry Corner May 2016 features the poem “Eden Hades” by Brazilian poet Olga Savary. Born in May 1933 in Belém, capital of the State of Pará in North Brazil, she was the only child of a Russian father and a Brazilian mother. After her parents separated in 1942, she moved with her mother to Rio de Janeiro.

With the publication of twelve books of her poetry, more than fifty translations of renowned foreign poets, and anthologies of North and Northeast Brazilian poets, Savary has an impressive body of literary work.

“Eden Hades” is the final poem in Savary’s collection of the same name, published in 1994. Like the Biblical Garden of Eden, her Eden is a garden providing three essential ingredients for life: water, sunlight, and fruit.

Water gardens satisfy our thirst
sunshine swollen in veins
hanging like mango

Our human nature sets us up for failure. With our needs fulfilled, we feel deserving and in control of our destiny. Then, forgetful of the reason for our existence and the natural laws governing our lives, we unleash insecurity and chaos.

and I was like the owner of a ship
arrogant, deserving. Just like
an open vowel, I opened doors for the sand
in sudden loss of memory.
 Continue reading →

“The Pedagogy of Steel” by Brazilian Poet Pedro Tierra

31 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

≈ 23 Comments

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Memorial of Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajas - 17 April 1996

Memorial of Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás – Pará – Brazil
Photo Credit: Globo (Glauco Araújo)
Learn more about the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST)

 

My Poetry Corner February 2016 features the poem “The Pedagogy of Steel” (A Pedagogia dos Aços) by Brazilian poet Pedro Tierra, pen name of Hamilton Pereira da Silva, a politician and Secretary of Culture in the Federal District.

Born in 1948 in Porto Nacional (Tocantins), Pedro Tierra abandoned his studies to join the resistance movement to overthrow the military dictatorship (1964-1985). In 1972, he was arrested and tortured for his subversive activities. During the five years he spent in prison, he lost several of his companions.

To survive and maintain his sanity, he began writing poetry. Adapting a Spanish pen name deterred exposure. He smuggled his poems to friends outside the prison, keeping them informed of life in captivity. Continue reading →