Poetry
Broquéis
Not translated into English
João da Cruz e Sousa · 1893
Opening lines
Ó Fórmas alvas, brancas, Fórmas claras
De luares, de neves, de neblinas!...
Ó Fórmas vagas, fluidas, crystalinas...
Incensos dos thuribulos das aras...
O pale Forms, white, clear Forms
Of moonlight, of snows, of mists!...
O vague Forms, fluid, crystalline...
Incense of the censers of the altars...
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from pt.wikisource.org
Synopsis
The collection brings together fifty-four poems, without division into sections, and opens with “Antífona”, a series of exclamations that closes on the word “Tudo!”. White recurs constantly there, forms “alvas, brancas”, moonlight, snow and mist, as a symbol of the absolute. The poet works on the music of the verse and mingles the senses, “harmonies of colour and perfume”. The pieces, from “Lésbia” to “Cristo de Bronze”, oscillate between mystical impulse and the flesh, death, pain and desire.
Context
The collection appeared in August 1893, a few months after Missal, and the two books are held to have opened symbolism in Brazil. The influence of Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Verlaine can be seen in it; the critics of the day received it with perplexity before recognising it, in the twentieth century, as a major work of Brazilian poetry. The journal Eutomia reads in it a passage from religious feeling to a mystical attitude, and a voice that cultivates mystery instead of resolving it. Its author was nicknamed the Black Swan.
Who it is for
Symbolist poems in Portuguese, with no French translation, dense and musical; they ask to be read slowly, and aloud.
Prizes and reception
A landmark of Brazilian Symbolism, long judged obscure, now counted among the foundational books of the country's poetry.