Libertinagem and Morning Star
Manuel Bandeira
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Manuel Carneiro de Souza Bandeira Filho was born in Recife (Pernambuco) in 1886 and died in Rio de Janeiro in 1968. He spent his
childhood in Recife, moving to Rio de Janeiro with his family as a teenager. He came to São Paulo to study at the Polytechnic School, which he abandoned in 1904, at eighteen, due to tuberculosis. In 1912, while in Switzerland for treatment, he became familiar with Symbolist and post-Symbolist poetry in French. This contact greatly influenced his poetic production, notably his early books: Carnaval and Cinza das Horas. Returning definitively to Rio de Janeiro, he befriended writers such as Ronald de Carvalho, Graça Aranha, and others who, along with him, participated in the literary changes that culminated in Modernism. Employing free verse (without meter) and blank verse (without rhyme), as well as irony, he was chosen by the participants of the Modern Art Week as the "John the Baptist" of the group. He did not personally participate in the Week due to his disagreement with the group's destructive tone, but his poem Os Sapos (The Frogs), a clear critique of the Parnassians, was presented on the first night of the event by Ronald de Carvalho, to boos.
His life was always linked to literature, whether as an author of poetry, literary chronicles, higher-level didactic works, and translations, or as a professor at Colégio Pedro II and the University of Brazil.
MAJOR WORKS
1917 - Cinza das Horas
1919 - Carnaval
1924 - Poesias (including Ritmo Dissoluto)
1930 - Libertinagem
1936 - Estrela da Manhã
1948 - Mafuá do Malungo
1952 - Opus 10
1958 - Estrela da Tarde
1966 - Estrela da Vida Inteira
CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS WORKS
Manuel Bandeira differs from his peers in the first phase of Brazilian Modernism by turning inward to his inner reality
and attempting to explain himself.
His life was marked by poorly cured tuberculosis and the loss of his parents and siblings between 1918 and 1922, which seemed to have given him a desire to desert life. His work is intertwined with his existence, leading us to identify the "lyrical self" of his poems with the poet himself.
Libertinage is composed of 38 poems, two of which are in French. It is in this work that Bandeira establishes himself as a truly modernist author, both in themes and form.
The themes are varied, such as:
- Childhood, the people connected to it, and his hometown, which serve as a refuge for the "lyrical self" (a discontented and unhappy poet); these elements appear as a balm for his present pain.
Poems: O Anjo da Guarda, Porquinho-da-Índia, Evocação do Recife, Profundamente, Irene no Céu, O Impossível Carinho, Poema de Finados.
- Brazilian imagery, evoking places, popular characters, and the very colloquial language of Brazil, transforming everyday life into poetic material.
Poems: Mangue, Evocação do Recife, Lenda Brasileira, Cunhantã, Camelôs, Belém do Pará, Poema tirado de uma notícia de
jornal, Macumba de Pai Zusé, and Pensão Familiar.
- A longing for vital freedom, where the "lyrical self" (a melancholic, solitary, and ironic poet) expresses his libertarian ideals, both of vital feelings and desires, and aesthetic ones.
Poems: Não sei dançar, Na boca, Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada, Poética, Comentário Musical, and O Último Poema.
- A disillusioned and ironic view of life, showing a deep melancholy that sometimes generates a surrealistic vision with an unexpected ending or a desire for change.
Poems: Não sei dançar, O Cacto, Pneumotórax, Comentário Musical, Chambre Vide, Banheur Lyrigue, Poema tirado de uma notícia de jornal, A Virgem Maria, O Major, Oração a Terezinha do Menino Jesus, Andorinha, Noturno da Parada Amorim, Noturno da Rua da Lapa, O Impossível Carinho, Poema de Finados, and O Último Poema.
- Love poems, sometimes presenting pure and innocent feelings, sometimes presenting erotic feminine images.
Poems: Mulheres, Porquinho-da-Índia, Tereza, Madrigal tão engraçadinho, Na Boca, and Palinódia.
In terms of form, Bandeira does not use any standard meter, varying from the redondilha maior (seven syllables) in Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada to verses of seventeen poetic syllables as in Namorados; within the same poem, numerous variations can be observed.
Some texts show a concern with graphic arrangement, as in Evocação do Recife. This concern is not evident regarding rhyme, but its greatest expression lies in the power of the word. The language is colloquial, everyday, but used brilliantly, without neglecting its sonic aspect, which ultimately provides the poem with a personal and harmonious rhythm that, combined with emotion, resembles a song.
COMMENTED ANTHOLOGY
The following texts were taken from the work Libertinagem & Estrela da Manhã by Manuel Bandeira, published by Editora Nova Fronteira.
Não sei Dançar (I Don't Know How to Dance)
Some take ether, others cocaine.
I've already taken sadness, today I'm taking joy.
I have every reason except one to be sad.
But the calculation of probabilities is a joke...
Down with Amiel!
And I will never read the diary of Maria Bashkirtseff.
Yes, I have lost my father, mother, siblings.
I have lost my health too.
That's why I feel the rhythm of the jazz band like no one else.
Some take ether, others cocaine.
I take joy!
That's why I came to attend this Fat Tuesday ball.
A very excellent mixture of teas...
This one was a lady's maid...
- She wasn't a housekeeper.
And she's dancing like the former mayor:
So Brazilian!
Indeed, this hall of mixed bloods looks like Brazil...
There's even the incipient yellow fraction
In the figure of a Japanese man.
The Japanese man also dances maxixe:
Acugêlê banzai!
The daughter of the sugar mill owner from Campos
Looks with disgust
At the immoral mulatta.
Yet what makes the other's indecency
Is the allure in the wonderful eyes of the girl.
And that slump of the shoulders...
But she doesn't know...
So Brazilian!
No one remembers politics...
Nor the eight thousand kilometers of coast...
Is the cotton from Seridó the best in the world?... What do I care?
There is no malaria, Chagas disease, or hookworms.
The siren whistles and the ganzá of the jazz band beats.
I take joy!
Petrópolis, 1925
The poem above opens the work Libertinagem and immediately gives us an idea of the work's tone.
At first glance, we notice a poem in blank and free verse, with irregular stanza structure, and the poet's concern with graphic arrangement.
The "lyrical self," unable to dance ("Não sei dançar"), observes the very Brazilian carnival ball, where a diverse array of human types, like the Japanese man mixing languages ("acugelê banzai"), the housekeeper, the former mayor, the sugar mill owner's daughter, and the immoral mulatta, mingle in the same environment, forgetting the country's situation.
Just as some use drugs to escape melancholy, the poet "drinks" in Fat Tuesday through his eyes.
His tone is melancholic and ironic, referencing Amiel, a Swiss poet with a restless and active spirit constantly paralyzed by his morbid shyness, as well as Maria, a Russian prose writer, whose work cited in the poem reveals the struggle and despair of her restless and melancholic spirit, much like the poet's.
Pneumotórax (Pneumothorax)
Fever, hemoptysis, dyspnea, and night sweats.
The whole life that could have been and wasn't.
Cough, cough, cough.
He sent for the doctor:
- Say thirty-three.
- Thirty-three... thirty-three... thirty-three...
- Breathe.
....................................................................................................................................................
- You have a cavity in your left lung and your right lung is infiltrated.
- So, doctor, can't we try pneumothorax?
- No. The only thing to do is play an Argentine tango.
In this poem, through clearly modernist forms—free blank verse—Bandeira mixes dialogue with affirmative phrases and graphic resources, employing all his melancholic self-irony.
In it, the "lyrical self" expresses his interior drama in the second line: "The whole life that could have been and wasn't." That is, to his frustrated desires, his unfulfilled dreams, all that remains is to play a tragic song in homage.
Irene Preta (Black Irene)
Black Irene
Good Irene
Irene always in a good mood.
I imagine Irene entering heaven:
- Excuse me, my white sir!
And Saint Peter, good-natured:
- Come in, Irene. You don't need to ask for permission.
Irene preta is one of the most famous and beloved figures from the poet's childhood. Here, his "lyrical self" pays her a very special tribute. Pay attention to the colloquial language with nominal phrases.
Poética (Poetics)
I am tired of measured lyricism
Of well-behaved lyricism
Of public servant lyricism with a time card, an expediente, a protocol, and manifestations
[of appreciation for the director
I am tired of lyricism that stops and consults the dictionary for the vernacular stamp
[of a word
Down with the purists
All words, especially universal barbarisms
All constructions, especially exceptional syntaxes
All rhythms, especially the innumerable ones
I am tired of flirtatious lyricism
Political
Rachitic
Syphilitic
Of all lyricism that capitulates to anything outside itself.
Otherwise, it is not lyricism
It might be accounting, a cosine table, a secretary for the exemplary lover with a hundred
[letter templates and different ways to please women, etc.
I want instead the lyricism of madmen
The lyricism of drunkards
The difficult and poignant lyricism of drunkards
The lyricism of Shakespeare's clowns
- I no longer want to know about lyricism that is not liberation.
Poética is the synthesis of the author's conception of a modern poem, and is therefore metalinguistic.
For the "lyrical self," a poem should not follow rules external to the poet's inner "self." He is against all syntactic, semantic, or poetic norms, in clear opposition to the Parnassian poets.
He prefers lyricism, that is, the free and spontaneous expression of the "lyrical self's" feelings, like that of drunkards and Shakespeare's clowns.
Belém do Pará
Bembelelém
VivaBelém!
City of orchards
(Forced the police to classify a new type of delinquent:
The mango tree stoner.)
Bembelelém
VivaBelém!
Belém do Pará, where avenues are called Roads:
Estrada de São Jerônimo
Estrada de Nazaré
Where the common Avenida Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca of all Brazilian cities
Is lyrically called
Brilliantly Brazilian
Estrada do Generalíssimo Deodoro
Bembelelém
VivaBelém!
Delicious Northerner
I love you.
Land of the Brazil nut
Land of rubber
Land of biribá, bacuri, sapoti
Land of speech full of indigenous names
That we don't know if they belong to a fruit, a tree, or a bird with beautiful plumage.
Delicious Northerner
I love you.
You've made me feel new longings
I will never forget your Largo da Sé
With the solid faith of the two marvelous baroque churches
And the kneeling row of charming colonial townhouses
I will never forget
The red, green, blue candles
Of the Ver-o-Peso dock.
Never again
And to console me later
I invented this song:
Bembelelém
VivaBelém!
Delicious Northerner
I love you.
Belém, 1928
The "lyrical self" sets out to invent a song as a form of consolation for future longings, when he is away from the city.
In the poem, the "lyrical self" refers to the port, the landscape, the streets, the language, the natural and architectural riches, demonstrating his admiration and affection for Belém do Pará.
The author truly creates a love song to Belém, as in the verses "Bembelelém/ VivaBelém," the concern for sonority is evident, as is the influence of children's songs (Bambalalão/ Senhor Capitão). Furthermore, the use of the redondilha menor (five syllables) in
"Nortista gostosa/ Eu te quero bem" is not coincidental, as it is the meter used in medieval songs, linked to music.
Evocação do Recife (Evocation of Recife)
Recife
Not the American Venice
Not the Mauritssatd of the West India Company
Not the Recife of the Peddlers
Not even the Recife I learned to love later—
Recife of the libertarian revolutions
But the Recife without history or literature
Recife without anything else
Recife of my childhood
Rua da União where I used to play "kick the can" and break the windows of the house of
[Dona Aninha Viegas
Totônio Rodrigues was very old and perched his pince-nez on the tip of his nose
After dinner, families would occupy the sidewalk with chairs, gossip, and flirtations
[and laughter
We used to play in the middle of the street
The boys would shout:
Rabbit, come out!
Don't come out!
In the distance, the soft voices of the girls would sing:
Rose bush, give me a rose
Carnation, give me the bud
(Of these very pink roses
Will have died in the bud...)
Suddenly
in the depths of the night
a bell
An adult said:
Fire in Santo Antônio!
Another contradicted: São José!
Totônio Rodrigues always thought it was São José.
The men put on their hats and went out smoking
And I was angry at being a child because I couldn't go see the fire
Rua da União...
How beautiful were the names of the streets of my childhood
Rua do Sol (Sun Street)
(I'm afraid it's now called Dr. So-and-so Street)
Behind the house was Rua da Saudade (Street of Longing)...
...where we used to go to smoke in secret
On the other side was the dock of Rua da Aurora (Dawn Street)...
...where we used to go fishing in secret
Capiberibe
- Capibaribe
Far away, the small sertão of Caxangá
Straw bathrooms
One day I saw a naked girl bathing
I stood still, my heart pounding
She laughed
It was my first revelation
Floods! The floods! Mud, dead oxen, trees, debris, whirlpools, vanished.
And on the piles of the railroad bridge, fearless caboclos in banana raft
[rafts
Novenas
Cavalhadas (horse parades)
I lay down on the girl's lap and she began to stroke my hair
Capiberibe
- Capibaribe
Rua da União where every afternoon passed the black woman selling bananas with her colorful shawl of
[pano da Costa (African fabric)
And the seller of sugarcane rolls
The peanut seller
who was called midubim and was not roasted but boiled
I remember all the street cries:
Fresh eggs, cheap!
Ten eggs for one pataca!
It was a long time ago...
Life didn't reach me through newspapers or books
It came from the people's mouths in the people's incorrect language
The correct language of the people
Because they are the ones who speak the beautiful Portuguese of Brazil
While we
What we do
Is mimic
The Lusitanian syntax
Life as a bunch of things I didn't quite understand
Lands I didn't know where they were
Recife...
Rua da União...
My grandfather's house...
I never thought it would end!
Everything there seemed imbued with eternity
Recife...
My dead grandfather.
Dead Recife, good Recife, Brazilian Recife like my grandfather's house.
Rio de Janeiro, 1925.
Evocation means to call from somewhere, to make appear by calling in a certain way. The "lyrical self" evokes in the present the Recife of his childhood, through memories, childhood games and songs, the habits of its people, its human types with their speech, its streets and rivers. This evocation has a melancholic and sad tone given by the last verses, where we perceive that this Recife of his childhood, which he thought was eternal, is as dead as his grandfather and is only revived in his memory, hence his poem being an evocation.
In Poética, the "lyrical self" exposes his ideas about what a modernist poem should be, while in Evocação do Recife he creates a modernist masterpiece according to the proposed objectives.
The "lyrical self" describes not the historical, libertarian Recife, but his beloved childhood Recife, which evokes a happy past for him, and which, in the present, would serve as a balm for the poet Bandeira's pain. It is, therefore, a highly lyrical poem, that is, charged with pure and spontaneous feelings like those of drunkards (Poética) and not taken from letter-writing manuals, but from the observation of Brazilian everyday events, games, floods, and street vendors' calls.
The language is simple, colloquial, because, according to the text, the people speak the beautiful Portuguese of Brazil, which is used in the poem. There is no concern with rhyme or meter, only with the graphic arrangement of the verses and the expression of a deep lyricism, so as to imbue the present with his deeply Brazilian and unforgettable Recife.
Mangue (Mangrove)
Mangue, more American Venice than Recife
Cargo ships docked in the wharves of the Canal Grande
Morro do Pinto dies of fright
Stevedores pass by with bare torsos, sweating, with sharp knives
Low coffee
Bonded warehouses
Barges of pineapples and bananas
A Light (power company) making crusvaldina with coke residues
There are macumbas on the asphalt
Eh cagira mia pai
Eh cagira
And the moonlight is one thing only
There was a time when Cidade Nova was more of a suburb than all the Meritis of the
[Baixada (lowland area)
Beloved, idolized homeland of minor public servants
People who live because they are stubborn
Fortune tellers from Rua do Carmo Neto
Dentists with Greek roots on their detached signboards
Senator Eusébio and the Viscount of Itaúna already looked at each other with rancor
(That's why
Between the two
Dom João VI planted four rows of imperial palm trees)
Small single-story houses where I, God, was so often a married public servant
[with an ugly wife and died of pulmonary tuberculosis
Many palm trees committed suicide because they didn't live in a blue peak.
It was here that the first cries of the Rio Carnival chorused
Sambas from Tia Ciata
Where is Tia Ciata anymore?
Perhaps at Dona Clara's, my white sir
Rehearsing cheganças (folk plays) for Christmas
The baby Jesus - Who are you?
The black man - I am that principal black man from the center of the cafange from the bottom of the rebolo (drum).
Who are you?
The baby Jesus - I am the son of the Virgin Mary.
The black man - Then, since you are her son, I obey.
The baby Jesus - Then, since you obey, recite a tercet for this
[exercise, see
Mangue was simple
But the summer solstice floods
Brought all the uiaras (water spirits) from the Serra da Carioca to Mata-Porcos
Uiaras from Trapicheiro
From Maracanã
From Rio Joan
And mermaids also came from overseas—washed ashore by the undertow onto the Gamboa landfills
Today there are liners docked in the wharves of the Canal Grande
The Senator and the Viscount have hired thugs
Today, many streets are spoken of that previously no one believed in
And there are parties in Mangue
With cries of cavaquinho, pandeiro, and reco-reco (instruments)
You are a woman
You are a woman and nothing more
Offering
Mangue, more American Venice than Recife
Meriti, prostitute
Mangue, finally, a truly Nova Cidade (New City)
With liners docked in the wharves of the Canal Grande
Beautiful as Juiz de Fora.
This poem pays homage to Mangue, in Rio de Janeiro, describing its landscape and its human types, similar to Evocação do
Recife and Belém do Pará.
It differs from the others in that it reproduces dialogues, spelling the words according to popular pronunciation and merging them with the verses in an unexpected way.
Poem taken from a newspaper report
João Gostoso was a free market porter and lived in a barrack on Babilônia hill
[without a number.
One night he went to the Vinte de Novembro bar
He drank
He sang
He danced
Then he threw himself into the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and drowned.
João Gostoso, the anonymous character from the barrack without a number, drinks, dances, sings, and commits suicide in the lagoon that beautifies the landscape.
Like Macabéa in Clarice Lispector's work, João Gostoso is the anonymous hero who succumbs to the voracity of the big city.
For the author, many words, meters, or rhymes are not needed to compose a tragedy; the facts suffice on their own.
It is a modernist poem in its first phase: a critical analysis of Brazilian reality expressed through colloquial, succinct language, where facts are reduced, as in a newspaper report.
Profundamente (Profoundly)
When I fell asleep last night
On Saint John's Eve
There was joy and commotion
Explosions of fireworks, Bengal lights
Voices, songs, and laughter
At the foot of the bonfires.
In the middle of the night, I woke up
I heard no more voices or laughter
Only balloons
Wandered by
Silently
Only from time to time
The sound of a tram
Cut through the silence
Like a tunnel.
Where were those who, a moment ago
Danced
Sang
And laughed
At the foot of the bonfires?
- They were all sleeping
They were all lying down
Sleeping
Profoundly.
When I was six years old
I couldn't see the end of the Saint John's festival
Because I fell asleep.
Today I no longer hear the voices of that time
My grandmother
My grandfather
Totônio Rodrigues
Tomásia
Rosa
Where are they all?
-They are all sleeping
They are all lying down
Sleeping
Profoundly.
In this poem, the "lyrical self" recalls the June festivals of his childhood, which bring him happy memories, but which have ended, as time has passed and his loved ones are gone.
Note in the text the alternation between childhood and the present, as well as the mention of people connected to his childhood, so often mentioned by the poet.
It is important to highlight the poet's concern in choosing the word "profundamente" (profoundly), which enhances the poem through its sonority in the refrain, as there is repetition of nasal sounds (assonance) and, alone, it constitutes a redondilha.
Vou me embora pra Pasárgada (I'm Going to Pasargada)
I'm going to Pasargada
There I am a friend of the king
There I have the woman I want
In the bed I will choose
I'm going to Pasargada
I'm going to Pasargada
Here I am not happy
There existence is an adventure
So inconsequential
That Joanna the Mad of Spain
Queen and feigned madwoman
Becomes a distant relative
Of the daughter-in-law I never had
And I will do gymnastics
I will ride a bicycle
I will ride a wild donkey
I will climb the greasy pole
I will take sea baths!
And when I'm tired
I'll lie down by the river
I'll send for the water mother
To tell me the stories
That when I was a boy
Rosa used to tell me
I'm going to Pasargada
In Pasargada, there is everything
It's another civilization
There's a sure method
For preventing conception
There's automatic telephone
There's alkaloid at will
There are beautiful prostitutes
For us to date
And when I'm sadder
But so sad there's no way out
When at night I feel
Like killing myself
- There I am a friend of the king -
I will have the woman I want
In the bed I will choose
I'm going to Pasargada.
The "lyrical self" expresses his desire to seek an imaginary and ideal place to live as a form of escape from the real world, which only causes him sadness, unhappiness, and the will to kill himself.
In Pasargada, the "lyrical self" will be able to satisfy all physical and emotional desires ("woman I want," "beautiful prostitutes"), and adventures ("do gymnastics," "ride a bicycle," "swim in the sea," etc.) that will be facilitated for him, as "I am a friend of the king."
Pasargada is a modern place (it has alkaloid, telephone, and a safe method of contraception), where the absurd does not exist ("becomes a distant relative/ Of the daughter-in-law I never had"; the water mother tells him stories) and Rosa from his childhood is present.
The poem is constructed in redondilha maior (seven syllables), which, along with the oral language, gives the text the pleasant rhythm of popular songs, a clear intention of the author; this does not contradict Modernism due to this intentionality.
O Último Poema (The Last Poem)
Thus I would like my last poem to be
That it be eternal, saying the simplest and least intentional things
That it be ardent like a sob without tears
That it have the beauty of flowers with almost no perfume
The purity of the flame in which the clearest diamonds are consumed
The passion of suicides who kill themselves without explanation.
The last poem of Libertinagem expresses the "lyrical self's" desires for a final poem (metalinguistic function). It should contain tenderness, ardor, simple beauty and purity, as well as the passion of suicides who do not explain their motives.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ESTRELA DA MANHÃ (MORNING STAR)
Estrela da Manhã is composed of 28 poems, 9 in free verse, 16 metered, and 3 prose poems, one of which is in French.
This work marks the beginning of the poet's last phase, called post-modernist by some critics. It is the most mature phase of his work.
In it, the author combines the best of tradition (Italian sonnet, English sonnet, rondo, vilancete, sextilha, cantiga, etc.) with the modern achievements previously employed.
The simple, lyrical, emotional, and humble style remains, but with stronger eroticism, surrealist verses, melancholy, and disillusionment with life.
Estrela da Manhã (Morning Star)
I want the morning star
Where is the morning star?
My friends, my enemies
Look for the morning star
She disappeared, she was naked
Disappeared with whom?
Look everywhere
Say I am a man without pride
A man who accepts everything
What do I care?
I want the morning star
Three days and three nights
I was a murderer and a suicide
A thief, a scoundrel, a forger
Sexually-ambiguous virgin
Afflicter of the afflicted
Two-headed giraffe
Sin for all, sin with all
Sin with the rascals
Sin with the sergeants
Sin with the navy marines
Sin in every way
With the Greeks and with the Trojans
With the priest and with the sacristan
With the leper of Pouso Alto
Then with me
I will wait for you with mafuás, novenas, cavalhadas, I will eat dirt and say things of such
[simple tenderness
That you will swoon
Look everywhere
Pure or degraded to the lowest baseness
I want the morning star.
The poem above introduces and gives its name to the book. The use of free and blank verse is maintained.
The "lyrical self" longs for the lost morning star and pleads for her insistently, in a litany-like tone, even asking for help. He doesn't care if she comes degraded or pure, or if she has been lost to other hands; he will wait for her with festivities ("mafuás, novenas, cavalhadas"); he will make sacrifices ("eat dirt") and will be a poet ("say things of simple tenderness").
In terms of form, there is no concern for rhyme, meter, or stanza structure. Observe that the star is addressed as "she," "you" (singular informal), and "you" (plural/formal). There is the use of anaphora (6th and 7th stanzas) and surrealistic images (5th stanza), which seem to spring from the "lyrical self's" subconscious.
Trem de Ferro (Train)
Café com pão (Coffee with bread)
Café com pão
Café com pão
Virgin Mary, what was this, engineer?
Now yes
Café com pão
Now yes
Fly, smoke
Run, fence
Oh, stoker
Put fire
In the furnace
Because I need
Much strength
Much strength
Much strength
Oô...
When they caught me
In the sugarcane field
Each sugarcane stalk
Was an office
Oô...
Beautiful girl
In the green dress
Give me your mouth
To quench my thirst
Oô...
I'm leaving, I'm leaving
I don't like it here
I was born in the sertão
I'm from Ouricuri
Oô...
Oô...
Flee, animal
Flee, people
Cross the bridge
Cross the post
Cross the pasture
Cross the ox
Cross the herd
Cross the branch
Of the ingazeira tree
Leaning
Over the stream
What a desire
To sing!
I'm going quickly
I'm running
I'm going at full speed
Because I'm only taking
Few people
Few people
Few people...
The poem is a sonic imitation of a moving train.
Its richness lies in its rhythm and musicality, which are based on meter, alliteration, and assonance, as well as including three songs within it (Oô...Oô).
The train's rhythm is marked by the number of poetic syllables in the verse; when it is fast, there are trisyllables; when it loses speed, it has four or five poetic syllables ("café com pão").
The colloquial language and fleeting images seen from the train window, perceived by a childish or naive "lyrical self," enhance the poem's richness.
Tragédia Brasileira (Brazilian Tragedy)
Misael, a government employee, 63 years old.
He met Maria Elvira in Lapa—a prostitute, with syphilis, dermatitis on her fingers, a pawned wedding ring, and her teeth in dire straits.
Misael took Maria Elvira out of that life, installed her in a townhouse in Estácio, paid for a doctor, a dentist, a manicurist... He gave her everything she wanted.
When Maria Elvira's appearance improved, she immediately found a boyfriend.
Misael didn't want a scandal. He could have given her a beating, a shot, a stab. He didn't do any of that; he moved houses. They lived like that for three years.
Every time Maria Elvira found a boyfriend, Misael moved houses.
The lovers lived in Estácio, Rocha, Catete, Rua General Pedra, Olaria, Ramos, Bonsucesso, Vila Isabel, Rua Marquês de
Sapucaí, Niterói, Encantado, Rua Clapp, back in Estácio, Todos os Santos, Catumbi, Lavradio, Boca do Mato, Inválidos...
Finally, on Rua da Constituição, where Misael, deprived of his senses and intelligence, killed her with six shots. The police found her lying on her back, dressed in blue organdy.
In the text above, Misael, 63 years old, a decent man, falls in love with a poorly kept prostitute. He takes her out of that life and takes care of her health and appearance, installing her in his home. As soon as she became beautiful and well-cared for, she found a boyfriend. Misael, not given to violence, decided to move. With each new boyfriend, a new house, for three years. In the end, after 19 moves, Misael lost his mind and killed her with six shots.
It is a prose poem, in which the poet, through concise sentences, demonstrates being the one who best saw the poetry, in this case, tragic, present in everyday life. The formal freedom characteristic of him leads him to imitate, at the end of the poem, journalistic language, thus highlighting the irony present in the text ("killed her with six shots").
