Poetry
Canto genetlíaco
Not translated into English
Opening lines
Bárbaros filhos destas brenhas duras,
nunca mais recordeis os males vossos;
revolvam-se no horror das sepulturas
dos primeiros avós os frios ossos:
Barbarous sons of these harsh thickets,
never again recall your woes;
let the cold bones of your first forebears
turn over in the horror of the graves:
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from escritas.org
Synopsis
Composed for the birth of José Tomás de Meneses, son of the governor of Minas Gerais, the poem in octaves brings several voices into play. It urges the sons of these harsh lands to forget their past sufferings, assures them that the heroic seed that came from Europe keeps all its strength here, and praises the labour of the slaves who divert rivers and pierce mountains, which it holds to be greater than the exploits of Hercules, Ulysses or Alexander. The praise of the child becomes praise of the country.
Context
The poem was composed in 1782 in Minas Gerais, according to the journal Antíteses and Kenneth Maxwell, and appeared only in 1794 under the title “Oitavas feitas em obséquio do nascimento”, according to a thesis from the Pontifical University of Rio. Some have read in it a court flattery following the rules of the time, but also, in the praise of the land and the men of Brazil, a nativist tone that foreshadows the poetry of independence. The author's poems were collected in 1864 by Joaquim Norberto de Sousa Silva, then reissued in 2020 with an introduction by Kenneth Maxwell.
Who it is for
Long occasional song in octaves, in Portuguese, with no French translation; it reads better with the occasion in mind.
Prizes and reception
The most studied piece in a brief body of work, read at times as court flattery, at times as the first nativist praise of Brazil.
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The pages consulted to check this page.