António Botto (August 17, 1897 – March 16, 1959) was a Portuguese

aesthete Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

and

lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Early life

António Thomaz Botto was born on August 17, 1897 to Maria Pires Agudo and Francisco Thomaz Botto, in

Concavada Union of Parishes of Alvega e Concavada is a ''freguesia'' ("parish") in the municipality of Abrantes Municipality, Abrantes, Portugal. It was formed in 2013 by the merger of the former parishes Alvega and Concavada. The population in 2011 was 2,15 ...

, Portugal, the couple's second son. His father earned his living as a boatman in the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Name T ...

. In 1902 the family moved t
Rua da Adiça, 22, 3rd floor
in the

Alfama The Alfama () is the oldest neighborhood of Lisbon, spreading on the slope between the São Jorge Castle and the Tagus river. The district includes the ''freguesias'' (parishes) of São Miguel, Santo Estêvão, São Vicente de Fora and part of th ...

quarter in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

(where a third and last son would be born). Botto grew up in the typical and popular atmosphere of that neighbourhood. Very old shabby houses, stretched up in steepy narrow streets, the ambiance was one of poverty and somewhat promiscuous. Small shops, small taverns where

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado ...

was sung late in the night. The dirty streets crowded with workers, housewives shopping, vendors, beggars, tramps, kids playing, pimps, prostitutes and sailors, which would deeply influence his work. Botto was poorly educated and since youth he took to a series of menial jobs, among them that of a book-shop clerk. Probably his education came from reading the books he lay hands on during his daily work. He also got acquainted with many of Lisbon's men of letters due to his job. In his mid-twenties he got into

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

as a modest administrative clerk in several State offices. In 1924–25 he worked in Santo António do Zaire and

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

, Angola, returning to Lisbon in 1925, where he stayed the remaining years as a civil servant up to 1942.

The scandal of ''Canções''

His first book of poems ''Trovas'' was published in 1917. It was followed by ''Cantigas de Saudade'' (1918), ''Cantares'' (1919) and ''Canções do Sul'' (1920). ''Canções'' (Songs) was published in 1921 and went unnoticed. Only after

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (; ; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, and publisher. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th c ...

published its 2nd edition, through his publishing house "Olisipo", emerged a public scandal amongst the Lisbon society which granted Botto a lifelong notoriety: the author dared to write about same-sex love and in a very nonchalant and romantic way. Besides that, it featured a photograph of Botto in a camp, languid pose showing his bare shoulders. To noise Botto's book, Pessoa wrote a provocative and encomiastic article about ''Canções'', published in the journal ''Comtemporânea'', praising the author's courage and sincerity for shamelessly singing

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

love as a true

. Pessoa's article had a contrary reply in the same journal by the critic Alvaro Maia, followed by another article by Raul Leal (an openly homosexual writer, friend of Pessoa). Conservatives reacted and complained to the authorities about the work's immorality (" Sodom's literature") and the book was apprehended by the authorities in 1923. The Liga de Acção dos Estudantes de Lisboa isbon Students Action League a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

college students group (led by Pedro Teotónio Pereira) clamored for an

auto-da-fé An ''auto-da-fé'' ( ; from Portuguese language, Portuguese or Spanish language, Spanish (, meaning 'act of faith') was a ritualized or public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries in condemnation of heresy, heretics, Aposta ...

of Botto's book and someone even suggested the author should be hanged. Nevertheless, most artists and intellectuals, headed by Pessoa (a close friend of Botto's and also his publisher and later English translator), promptly took up his defence in several polemic articles. Martinho Pessoa Botto 1928

Eventually, the scandal subsided, the next year the ban was lifted and until the end of his life Botto would publish several revised versions of the book. It's true his work had been saluted by

Teixeira de Pascoaes Joaquim Pereira Teixeira de Vasconcelos (2 November 1877, Amarante Municipality, Portugal - 14 December 1952, Gatão, Portugal), better known by his pen name Teixeira de Pascoaes, was a Portuguese poet. He was nominated five times for the Nobe ...

and

José Régio José Maria dos Reis Pereira (17 September 1901 – 22 December 1969), better known by the pen name José Régio ( ), was a Portuguese writer who spent most of his life in Portalegre (1929 to 1962). He was the brother of Júlio Maria dos Reis ...

, but praises from the likes of

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, as he claimed, seem to have been a figment of Botto's very wild imagination.

Personal life

Botto was described as a slender, medium-height

dandy A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance and personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. A dandy could be a self-made man both in person and ''persona'', who emulated the aristocratic style of l ...

, fastidiously dressed, oval-faced, a tiny mouth with thin pursed lips, strange, scrutinizing, ironic eyes (sometimes clouded by a disturbing malicious expression) hidden by an everpresent

fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

. He had a sardonic sense of humour, a sharp, perverse and irreverent mind and tongue, and he was a brilliant and witty conversationalist. He also reveled in indiscreet gossiping. Some of his contemporaries said he was frivolous, mercurial, mundane, uneducated, vindictive, a mythomaniac and, above all, vain and

narcissistic Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism, named after the Greek mythological figure ''Narcissus'', has evolv ...

to the point of

megalomania Megalomania is an obsession with power, wealth, fame, and a passion for grand schemes. Megalomania or megalomaniac may also refer to: Psychology * Grandiose delusions * Narcissistic personality disorder * Omnipotence (psychoanalysis), a stage ...

. Botto's mythomania seems to have been a lifelong trait of his. He talked about unlikely friendships with people like

Vaslav Nijinsky Vaslav or Vatslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry. He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. Nijinsky was celebrated for his virtuosity and f ...

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. On the other hand, he never alluded to his modest background or ever talked about his parents or brothers. He was a regular visitor of Lisbon's popular bohemian quarters and the

docks The word dock () in American English refers to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore). In British English, the term is not used the same way as in American Engli ...

, enjoying the company of

sailors A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

, a frequent image in his poems. In spite of a

fame, he had a lifelong and fully devoted

common-law wife Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, de facto marriage, more uxorio or marriage by habit and repute, is a marriage that results from the parties' agreement to consider themselves married, follo ...

, Carminda da Conceição Silva Rodrigues, a widow, nine years his elder. "''Marriage suits every handsome and decadent man''", he once wrote.

Expelled from job

On November 9, 1942 Botto was expelled from the

for ::''i) disobeying orders from a superior;'' ::''ii) for wooing a male co-worker and addressing to him ambiguous words, denouncing tendencies condemned by the social morals;'' ::''iii) for writing and reciting verses during the working hours, disrupting discipline at the workplace.'' When he read the humiliating public announcement in the official gazette he was totally disheartened, but commented ironically: "Now I'm Portugal's only acknowledged homosexual." But this proved insufficient. His health was deteriorating from tertiary

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

(of which he refused treatment) and the brilliance of his poetry was fading away. He was jeered at any time he entered

cafés A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargile ...

, bookshops or theatres by homophobes. He was fed up with living in Portugal and in 1947 he decided to move to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, hoping for a new beginning. To raise funds for his trip in May he gave two large poetry recitals in Lisbon and

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

. They were a big success, and he was largely praised by several artists and intellectuals, among them

Amália Rodrigues Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (23 July 1920 – 6 October 1999), known as simply Amália Rodrigues () or popularly as Amália, was a Portuguese fado singer (''fadista''). Dubbed ''Rainha do Fado'' ("Queen of Fado"), she was instrumen ...

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and the writer

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. On 5 August 1947, Botto and his wife sailed to Brazil aboard the ''Juan de Garay'' liner.

Years in Brazil and death

On the evening of March 4, 1959, on the way to meet a lawyer friend while crossing the Nossa Senhora de Copacabana Avenue, in Rio de Janeiro, he was run over by a State's motor vehicle and he got a broken skull, going into a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

. He died on March 16, 1959, around 5:00 pm, in the Hospital Sousa Dias.In the 1980s a Portuguese tabloid (''Jornal do Incrível'') published an extant and impressive rare photo of Botto's last moments: his wife, crying convulsively, clinching the badly shaven and shabbily dressed corpse of the poet. In 1965 his remains were transferred to Lisbon and since 11 November 1966 they are buried in the

Alto de São João Cemetery Alto de São João Cemetery ( Portuguese: ''Cemitério do Alto de São João'') is the largest cemetery in Lisbon, Portugal, located in the ''freguesia'' (civil parish) of Penha de França, in eastern Lisbon (formerly, within the parish of São J ...

. By that time, his widow also sent Botto's archives to a Portuguese relative of hers who later donated them to Lisbon's Biblioteca Nacional in 1989.

Bibliography

1917 – ''Trovas'' (poems) 1918 – ''Cantiga de Saudade'' (poems) 1919 – ''Cantares'' (poems) 1920 – ''Canções do Sul'' (poems), com um estudo de Jayme de Balsemão, Lisbon, Agartha Press. 1921 – ''Canções'' (poems), preface by Teixeira de Pascoaes, Lisbon, Agartha Press. 1922 – ''Canções'', 2nd edition, Lisbon, Olisipo (until 1956, under the title ''As Canções de António Botto'', this book will have several revised and augmented editions by the author. Critics say the last credible one is that of 1932, the following ones being increasingly worse in quality). 1924 – ''Curiosidades Estéticas'' (poems) 1925 – ''Piquenas Esculturas'' (poems) 1927 – ''Olimpíadas'' (poems) 1928 – ''Dandysmo'' (poems) 1929 – ''Antologia de Poemas Portugueses Modernos'' (with Fernando Pessoa) 1931 – ''O Livro das Crianças'' (children short stories) 1933 – ''Alfama'' (theatre); ''António'' (theatre) 1934 – ''O Meu Amor Pequenino'' (short stories); ''Ciúme'' (poems) 1935 – ''Dar de Beber a Quem Tem Sede'' (short stories); ''A Verdade e Nada Mais'' (children anthology); ''The Children's Book'', translated by Alice Lawrence Oram; illustrated by Carlos Botelho, Lisbon: Bertrand & Irmãos. 1938 – ''A Vida Que Te Dei'' (poemas); ''Os Sonetos de António Botto'' (poems) 1940 – ''O Barco Voador'' (short stories); ''Isto Sucedeu Assim'' (novel) 1941 – ''OLeabhar na hÓige. Scéalta ón bPortaingéilis''. Oifig an tSolatháir: Baile Átha Cliath (short stories with illustrations, Irish translation of ''Os Contos de António Botto para Crianças e Adultos'') 1942 – ''Os Contos de António Botto para Crianças e Adultos'' (short stories) 1943 – ''A Guerra dos Macacos'' (short stories) 1945 – ''As Comédias de António Botto'' (theatre) 1947 – ''Ódio e Amor'' (poems) 1948 – ''Songs'' (English translation by Fernando Pessoa of Canções) 1953 – ''Histórias do Arco da Velha'' (children's stories) 1955 – ''Teatro''; ''Fátima Poema do Mundo'' 1999 – ''As Canções de António Botto'', Presença, Lisbon, 1999 (out-of-print) 2008 – ''Canções e outros poemas'', Quasi Edições, Lisbon, 2008 2008 – ''Fátima'', Quasi Edições, Lisbon, 2008 2010 – ''Canções'': António Botto. Tradução para o inglês: Fernando Pessoa. Edição, prefácio e notas: Jerónimo Pizarro e Nuno Ribeiro. Babel, Lisbon, 2010. (Comprises the English translation by Fernando Pessoa) 2010 �
''The Songs of António Botto'' translated by Fernando Pessoa
Edited and with an introduction by Josiah Blackmore. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2010 2018 - ''Poesia''. Lisbon: Assírio & Alvim, 2018. Edited by Eduardo Pitta, a complete collection of Botto's poetry published in his lifetime, from 1921 to 1959, a total of 22 books: the fifteen from ''Canções'': Adolescente / Curiosidades Estéticas / Piquenas Esculturas / Olimpíadas / Dandismo / Ciúme / Baionetas da Morte / Piquenas Canções de Cabaret / Intervalo / Aves de Um Parque Real / Poema de Cinza / Tristes Cantigas de Amor / A Vida Que Te Dei / Sonetos / Toda a Vida —, and also ''Motivos de Beleza'', ''Cartas Que Me Foram Devolvidas'', ''Cantares'', ''O Livro do Povo'', ''Ódio e Amor'', ''Fátima. Poema do Mundo'', and the unpublished ''Ainda Não Se Escreveu''. This 815 pages volume also includes the poems Botto wrote for the film '' Gado Bravo'' (1934), directed by

António Lopes Ribeiro António Filipe Lopes Ribeiro (16 April 1908 in Lisbon – 1995) was a Portuguese film director. Son of Manuel Henrique Correia da Silva Ribeiro and wife Ester da Nazaré Lopes, he was the older brother of actor An actor (masculine/gende ...

References

External links

''Canções'' at archive.org

The Songs of António Botto translated by Fernando Pessoa

Biblioteca Municipal António Botto

Rare photographs of António Botto in casacomum.org from Fundação Mário Soares photo archives.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botto, Antonio 1897 births 1959 deaths Gay poets Portuguese LGBTQ poets LGBTQ history in Portugal 20th-century Portuguese poets Portuguese male poets 20th-century Portuguese male writers 20th-century Portuguese LGBTQ people