Carlos Drummond de Andrade () (October 31, 1902 – August 17, 1987) was a Brazilian poet and writer, considered by some as the greatest Brazilian poet of all time.
He has become something of a national cultural symbol in Brazil, where his widely influential poem "Canção Amiga" ("Friendly Song") has been featured on the 50-
cruzado novo bill.
Biography
Drummond was born in
Itabira
Itabira is a Brazilian municipality and a major city in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area mesoregion and to the Itabira microregion.
It is currently the twenty-fourth largest city in the state in ...
, a mining village in
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
in the southeastern region of Brazil. His parents were farmers belonging to old Brazilian families of mainly Portuguese origin. He went to a school of
pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...
in
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...
, but never worked as a pharmacist after graduation, as he did not enjoy the career he chose. He worked as a civil servant for most of his life, eventually becoming director of the history for the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil.
Though his earliest poems are formal and satirical, Drummond quickly adopted the new forms of Brazilian modernism that were evolving in the 1920s, incited by the work of
Mário de Andrade
Mário Raul de Morais Andrade (October 9, 1893 – February 25, 1945) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. He wrote one of the first and most influential collections of modern Brazilian poetr ...
(to whom he was not related). He would mingle speech fluent in elegance and derive truth about his surroundings, many times describing quotidian, normal aspects of life while achieving a fluidity of thought and speech. Drummond drifted towards communism at the start of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and took up the editorship of the
Brazilian Communist Party
The Brazilian Communist Party ( pt-BR, Partido Comunista Brasileiro), originally the Communist Party of Brazil (), is a communist party in Brazil founded on 25 March 1922 which makes the disputed claim of being the oldest political party stil ...
's official newspaper, ''Tribuna Popular'', but later abandoned the post due to disagreements over censorship, which Drummond staunchly opposed.
Drummond's work is generally divided into several segments, which appear very markedly in each of his books. But this is somewhat misleading, since even in the midst of his ''everyday'' poems or his ''socialist'', politicized poems, there appear creations which can be easily incorporated into his later ''metaphysical'' canon, and none of these ''styles'' is completely free of the others. There is surely much ''metaphysical'' content in even his most political poems.
The most prominent of these later metaphysical poems is ''A Máquina do Mundo'' (The World's Machine). The poem deals with an anti-
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
referred to in the first person, who receives the visit of the aforementioned Machine, which stands for all possible knowledge, and the sum of the answers for all the questions which afflict men; in highly dramatic and baroque versification, the poem develops only for the anonymous subject to decline the offer of endless knowledge and proceed his gloomy path in the solitary road. It takes the renaissance allegory of the Machine of the World from
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
's most esteemed poet,
Luís de Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespear ...
, more precisely, from a canto at the end of his epic masterpiece ''
Os Lusíadas
''Os Lusíadas'' (), usually translated as ''The Lusiads'', is a Portuguese epic poem written by Luís Vaz de Camões ( – 1580) and first published in 1572. It is widely regarded as the most important work of Portuguese-language literature an ...
''.
One of those said segments have been found only after his death: deliberately erotic poetry. That type of poetry has been published in only one book, "Moça deitada na grama" (woman laid down in the grass) with the authorization and actual intervention by his son-in-law.
![DrummondStatueCopacabana](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/DrummondStatueCopacabana.jpg)
Drummond is a favorite of American poets, a number of whom, including
Mark Strand
Mark Strand (April 11, 1934 – November 29, 2014) was a Canadian-born American poet, essayist and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990 and received the Wallace Stevens Award in 2004 ...
and
Lloyd Schwartz, have translated his work. Later writers and critics have sometimes credited his relationship with
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...
, his first
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
translator, as influential for his American reception, but though she admired him, Bishop claimed she barely even knew him. In an interview with
George Starbuck
George Edwin Starbuck (June 15, 1931 in Columbus, Ohio – August 15, 1996 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama) was an American poet of the neo-formalist school.
Life
Starbuck studied at Chadwick School, the California Institute of Technology, the Univers ...
in 1977, she said, "I didn't know him at all. He's supposed to be very shy. I'm supposed to be very shy. We've met once — on the sidewalk at night. We had just come out of the same restaurant, and he kissed my hand politely when we were introduced."
Style
![Carlos Drummond de Andrade - Papel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Carlos_Drummond_de_Andrade_-_Papel.jpg)
Drummond, as a writer of the modernist style, follows the writing mechanic proposed by
Mário de Andrade
Mário Raul de Morais Andrade (October 9, 1893 – February 25, 1945) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. He wrote one of the first and most influential collections of modern Brazilian poetr ...
and
Oswald de Andrade
José Oswald de Souza Andrade (January 11, 1890 – October 22, 1954) was a Brazilian poet, novelist and cultural critic. He was born, spent most of his life and died in São Paulo.
Andrade was one of the founders of Brazilian modernism and a m ...
; making use of free verse, and not depending on a fixed meter. In modernism, the predominant style which Drummond wrote in, styles were divided into lyrical and subjective or objective and concrete, Drummond would be part of the latter, similar to Oswald de Andrade.
Drummond was the first poet to assert himself after the premiere modernist of Brazil and created a unique style dominated by his writing. His work displays linguistic freedom and free verse. But it goes beyond that: "The work of Drummond reaches – as
Fernando Pessoa
Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...
,
Jorge de Lima,
Murilo Mendes
Murilo Monteiro Mendes (May 13, 1901 – August 13, 1975) was a Brazilian Modernist poet, considered to be one of the forerunners of the Surrealist movement in Brazil.
Biography
Mendes was born in Juiz de Fora, in the Brazilian state of Minas Ge ...
, and
Herberto Helder – a coefficient of loneliness that detached from the soil of history, leading the reader to an attitude-free of references, trademarks or ideological or prospective," said
Alfredo Bosi (1994).
His poetry, according to
Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna
Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna (born March 27, 1937), is a Brazilian poet, essay writer, and professor.
Background
He was a professor of Brazilian Literature at UCLA and the University of Texas at El Paso, and a writer for the O Globo newspaper. In ...
, can be divided into three parts:
* I, greater than the world – marked by ironic poetry
* I, lower than the world – marked by social poetry
* I, equal to the world – covers the metaphysical poetry
In the late 1980s, his poetry began to become more erotic. ''O Amor Natural'' (''Natural Love''), a collection of erotic poems, was published posthumously. The book inspired the 1996 Dutch documentary film ''
O Amor Natural
'' O Amor Natural '' is a 1996 Dutch documentary film directed by Heddy Honigmann. The film was shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in ...
''.
Tribute
On 31 October 2019,
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
celebrated his 117th birthday with a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
.
Bibliography
Poetry
*(1930)'Alguma Poesia' (Some Poetry)
*(1934)'Brejo das Almas'
*(1940)'
Sentimento do Mundo
''Sentimento'' is the ninth studio album released by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. It was recorded between 30 September and 7 October 2000, and released on 5 November 2002.
The album was conducted by Lorin Maazel with London Symphony Orchestra ...
' (The feeling of the world)
*(1942)José
*(1945)'A Rosa do Povo' (The People's Rose)
*(1951)'Claro Enigma' (Clear Enigma)
*(1954)'Fazendeiro do Ar'
*(1954)'Quadrilha'
*(1955)'Viola de Bolso'
*(1964)'Lição de Coisas' (Lesson of Things)
*(1968)'Boitempo'
*(1968)'A Falta Que Ama'
*(1968)'Nudez' (Nudity)
*(1973)'As Impurezas do Branco' (The Impurity of the White)
*(1973)'Menino Antigo' (Boitempo II)
*(1977)'A Visita' (The Visit)
*(1977)'Discurso do Primavera e Alguma Sombra'
*(1978)'O Marginal Clorildo Gato'
*(1979)'Esquecer para Lembrar' (Boitempo III)
*(1980)'A Paixão de Medida'
*(1983)'Caso do Vestido'
*Corpo (1984)
*Amar se aprende amando (1985)
*Poesia Errante (1988)
*O Amor Natural (1992)
*Farewell (1996)
*Os ombros suportam o mundo(1935)
*Futebol a arte (1970)
*Antologia poética:
*A última pedra no meu caminho (1950)
*50 poemas escolhidos pelo autor (1956)
*Antologia Poética (1962)
*Antologia Poética (1965)
*Seleta em Prosa e Verso (1971)
*Amor, Amores (1975)
*Carmina drummondiana (1982)
*Boitempo I e Boitempo II (1987)
*Minha morte (1987)
*O Elefante (1983)
*História de dois amores (1985)
*O pintinho (1988)
*Carol e Dinha(2009)
Prose
*Confissões de Minas (1944)
*Contos de Aprendiz (1951)
*Passeios na Ilha (1952)
*Fala, amendoeira (1957)
*A bolsa & a vida (1962)
*Cadeira de balanço (1966)
*Caminhos de João Brandão (1970)
*O poder ultrajovem e mais 79 textos em prosa e verso (1972)
*De notícias & não-notícias faz-se a crônica (1974)
*Os dias lindos (1977)
*70 historinhas (1978)
*Contos plausíveis (1981)
*Boca de luar (1984)
*O observador no escritório (1985)
*Tempo vida poesia (1986)
*Moça deitada na grama (1987)
*O avesso das coisas (1988)
*Auto-retrato e outras crônicas (1989)
*As histórias das muralhas (1989)
English translations
*''Souvenir of the Ancient World,'' translated by Mark Strand (Antaeus Editions, 1976)
*''Looking for Poetry: Poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Rafael Alberti, with Songs from the Quechua,'' translated by Mark Strand (Knopf, 2002)
*''Traveling in the Family : Selected Poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade,'' edited by Thomas Colchie and Mark Strand (Random House, 1986)
*''The Minus Sign: Selected Poems,'' translated by Virginia de Araujo (Black Swan, 1980)
*''In the Middle of the Road; Selected Poems,'' translated by John A Nist (U of Arizona, 1965)
*''Multitudinous Heart: Selected Poems: A Bilingual Edition'', translated by Richard Zenith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015)
Reviews
*
Pontiero, Giovanni, (1982), review of ''The Minus Sign'', in ''
Cencrastus
''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...
'' No. 9, Summer 1982, p. 47,
Further reading
English
*Brazilian writers (encyclopedia) / Mônica Rector, ed. 2005
* Seven Faces: Brazilian Poetry since Modernism / Charles A. Perrone, 1996
*The Cambridge history of Latin American literature. Volume 3, Brazilian literature / Roberto González Echevarría., 1996
*Tropical paths: essays on modern Brazilian literature / Randal Johnson., 1993
*Brazilian literature: a research bibliography / David William Foster., 1990
*The unquiet self: self and society in the poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Ricardo Sternberg., 1986
*Carlos Drummond de Andrade and his generation : proceedings / Frederick G Williams., 1986
*The poetry and poetics of Carlos Drummond de Andrade; diss. / John Gledson., 1979
*The theme of human communication in the poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, article / Mary Patricia O'Brien, 1970
Portuguese
*Drummond cordial / Jerônimo Teixeira., 2005
*A rima na poesia de Carlos Drummond de Andrade & outros ensaios / Hélcio de Andrade Martins., 2005
*Drummond, a magia lúcida / Marlene de Castro Correia., 2002
*Leituras de Drummond / Flávio Loureiro Chaves, 2002
*Drummond: um olhar amoroso / Luzia de Maria, 2002
*A prosa à luz da poesia em Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Regina Souza Vieira, 2002
*Carlos Drummond de Andrade: a poética do cotidiano / Maria Veronica Aguilera, 2002
*Drummond, poesia e experiência / Ivete Lara Camargos Walty, 2002
*Drummond revisitado / Chantal Castelli, 2002
*Coração partido: uma análise da poesia reflexiva de Drummond / Davi Arrigucci Júnior, 2002
*Drummond: da rosa do povo à rosa das trevas / Vagner Camilo, 2001
*Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Francisco Achcar, 2000
*Ideologia e forma literária em Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Lucila Nogueira, 1990
Spanish
*Una poética de la despreocupación: modernidad e identidad en cuatro poetas latinoamericanos / Rafael Rodríguez, 2003
*Drummond, el poeta en el tiempo / Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna, 2003
*Las retoricas de la decadencia: Martí, Palés, Drummond / Maribel Roig, 2001
*Estado de alerta y estado de inocencia : algunas reflexiones sobre la poesía y el arte / E Bayley, 1996
*Manuel Bandeira, Cecilia Meireles, Carlos Drummond de Andrade / Cipriano S Vitureira, 1952
External links
*
*
The DVD of the film O Amor Natural by Heddy Honigmann, on the erotic poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade*[Music
O Amor Natural, the erotic poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade translated into music by Georgia Dias & BocaThe Elephant, translated by Mark Strand From Ploughshares, 1975.
In the Middle of the Road, translated by Elizabeth Bishop
Biography of Carlos Drummond de Andrade Carmos Drummond de Andraderecorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division's audio literary archive on July 29, 1974
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drummond de Andrade, Carlos
1902 births
1987 deaths
People from Minas Gerais
Brazilian people of Portuguese descent
Brazilian people of Scottish descent
Brazilian communists
Communist poets
Brazilian male poets
Brazilian agnostics
Modernist poets
Portuguese-language writers
20th-century Brazilian poets
Carlos
20th-century Brazilian male writers
Culture in Minas Gerais