Amadeu Thiago de Mello (30 March 1926 – 14 January 2022), pen name Thiago de Mello, was a Brazilian poet, writer, translator, and environmental activist. He was among the most appreciated writers in the country and especially as an icon of Amazonian regional literature. His work has been translated into numerous languages.

Life and career

After Thiago de Mello completed his elementary education at the Grupo Escolar Barão do Rio Branco and high school at the Gymnásio Pedro II in Manaus, he moved to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, where he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine ( Faculdade Nacional de Medicina), but left after four years to pursue the path of poetry. In 1951, ''Silêncio e Palavra'', his first book, was published and immediately received critical acclaim. During the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

from 1964 to 1985, he first took exile in Chile, where he found a friend and political sympathizer in

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

and witnessed the violent overthrow of President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

and the subsequent military coup. In 1964, he wrote what is probably his best-known poem, ''Os Estatutos do Homem'' ( "The Statutes of Man"), which proclaimed simple human rights as a protest against the military regime and was allegedly immediately banned by it. His further exile took him to Argentina, Portugal, France, and Germany. After the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship, he moved back to his native city of

Barreirinha Barreirinha is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 32,483 (2020) and its area is 5,751 km².IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Esta ...

, where he lived in a house owned by the architect

Lúcio Costa Lúcio Marçal Ferreira Ribeiro Lima Costa (27 February 1902 – 13 June 1998) was a Brazilian architect and urban planner, best known for his plan for Brasília. Career Costa was born in Toulon, France, the son of Brazilian parents. His fath ...

and worked for the integrity of the Amazon region and for human rights. During literary career, De Mello was awarded national and international prizes and awards. Besides his own work, he had a long career as a translator of Latin American poetry by Pablo Neruda,

César Vallejo César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators ...

Ernesto Cardenal Ernesto Cardenal Martínez (20 January 1925 – 1 March 2020) was a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet, and politician. He was a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for m ...

Eliseo Diego Eliseo Diego (July 2, 1920 – March 1, 1994) was a Cuban poet praised for his lyric poetry, and short stories. He was born in Havana and died in Mexico City. Diego, the father of writer Eliseo Alberto, won the Mexican Juan Rulfo Prize in 1993. H ...

Nicolás Guillén Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista (10 July 1902 – 17 July 1989) was a Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.

, and also T. S. Eliot into Portuguese. His own works have appeared in Chile, Cuba, Argentina, Portugal, the United States, France, Great Britain and Germany, in addition to Brazil. Pablo Neruda said about him, "Thiago de Mello is a soul transformer," and dedicated the poem ''Thiago y Santiago'' to him. De Mello died in

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

on 14 January 2022, at the age of 95.

Awards

* 1960: Brazilian Academy of Letters' Poetry award * 1962: Book of the Year Award by União Brasileira de Escritores * 1997: Rio de Janeiro Book Biennial (Bienal do Livro do Rio de Janeiro) Award * 1997:

Prêmio Jabuti The Prêmio Jabuti (the "Tortoise Prize") is the most traditional literary award in Brazil, given by the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL). It was conceived by Edgard Cavalheiro in 1959 when he presided over the CBL, with the interest of rewarding autho ...

for ''De uma vez por todas'' In addition, Thiago de Mello was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de France in the 1980s.

Works

* 1951: ''Silêncio e palavra'' * 1952: ''Narciso cego'' * 1956: ''A lenda da rosa'' * 1960: ''Vento geral'' * 1965: ''Faz escuro mas eu canto'' * 1966: ''A canção do amor armado'' * 1977: ''Os Estatutos do Homem'' * 1981: ''Mormaço na floresta'' * 1982: ''Horóscopo para os que estão vivos'' * 1986: ''Num campo de margaridas'' * 1991: ''Amazonas, pátria da àgua'' Photographies by Luiz Cláudio Marigo * 1992: ''Os Estatutos do Homem e Poemas inéditos'' * 1993: ''Borges na luz de Borges'' * 1996: ''De uma vez por todas'' * 1999: ''Campo de milagres''

References

External links

Thiago de Mello at Jornal de Poesia
(in Portuguese and English)

(in Portuguese and Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mello, Thiago de 1926 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Brazilian poets 21st-century Brazilian poets 21st-century Brazilian writers Brazilian translators Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres People from Amazonas (Brazilian state)