Continuing the stories of the Portuguese Language Writers, and changing the accent, today's story is about the Portuguese poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen .
According to Sophia's translator and friend, Richard Zenith, “ writing was her way of having self-love ”. Deep, isn't it?
Today we are going to meet a woman totally intertwined with poetic words. Her poems reveal who she really was: passionate about the sea and freedom.
Sophia was born in 1919, in an aristocratic family in Porto.
Sophia's relationship with her mother was characterized by a freedom that was unique for the time. Contrary to rigorous and restrictive educational standards, she gave her children the freedom to explore, make mistakes and learn for themselves.
This atmosphere of freedom was a crucial repertoire in the development of Sophia's creativity and independent thinking. She learned to see the world as an inexhaustible source of beauty and inspiration, even in the face of adversity.
Her childhood was marked by the sea , which fascinated her and which would later be a constant presence in her work. "The sea is without a doubt my place", Sophia would say in an interview, reflecting on how the sea influenced her worldview and her writing.
Sophia's youth was permeated by the awareness of the oppression of the Salazarist regime. Her poetry is born from this tension between the beauty of the world and social injustice, reflecting a burning desire for freedom.
In 1944, her first book, with the fairest of titles "Poetry", signified not only her affirmation as a poet but also as an active voice against authoritarianism. This moment was crucial, establishing her writing as an ethical and aesthetic commitment.
"I write to disturb, to not consent", sums up her stance well.
Some of the bookss he has authored include: Mar Novo (1958); Book Sixth (1962); Geography (1967); The Name of Things (1977), among many others.
She also wrote several works of children's literature and stated that the fable was the best way to tell the reality of life to children.
The Carnation Revolution in 1974 was a milestone in her career. It is said that her poem about April 25th is the most beautiful poem about the occasion.
“ This is the dawn I've been waiting for
The whole and clean starting day
Where we emerge from the night and the silence
And free we inhabit the substance of time.”
Sophia not only witnessed but actively participated in the democratic transition , being elected to the Constituent Assembly. But she became disenchanted with politicians. “It is a policy dominated by externality, vanity and sexist levity.
In 1999, she became the second woman to receive the prestigious Camões Prize , following the Brazilian, Raquel de Queiroz.
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen is an emblematic figure, not only in Portuguese-language literature, but as an example of a woman who used her voice and writing to inspire a more just world.
Her work is a potent reminder of poetry's ability to move the world. I believe that a voice capable of 'Being whole' moves the world through its truth. To conclude, her writing is, then, a reminder of our wholeness in life, as per the following poem that concludes this content.
“Poetry doesn’t exactly ask me for a specialization because its art is an art of being. It's also not time or work that poetry asks of me. Neither asks me for a science nor an aesthetics nor a theory. It asks me rather for the entirety of my being, a conscience deeper than my intelligence, a fidelity purer than one I can control. It asks me for intransigence without any gaps. It asks me to uproot a seamless tunic from my life, which breaks, wears out, corrupts and dilutes. It asks me to live attentively like an antenna, it asks me to always live, to never forget. It ask me for an unrelenting, dense and compact obstinacy.
Because poetry is my explanation of the universe, my coexistence with things, my participation in reality, my encounter with voices and images. That's why the poem doesn't talk about an ideal life but about a concrete life: angle of the window, resonance of streets, cities and rooms, shadow of walls, appearance of faces, silence, distance and brightness of stars, breath of the night, scent of linden and oregano.”