Camilo Pessanha

Bust of Camilo Pessanhas in Parque de Santa Cruz (Coimbra, Portugal)

Camilo de Almeida Pessanha (born September 7, 1867 in Coimbra , Portugal , † March 1, 1926 in Macau ) was a Portuguese writer and one of the most important exponents of Portuguese symbolism . He was also a member of the Questão Coimbrã .

Life

Camilo Pessanha was born in Coimbra on September 7, 1867, the son of a law student with aristocratic ancestors and his housekeeper. Pessanha received his school education mainly in Lamego , where his father worked as a judge. In 1884, Pessanha followed his father's example and enrolled at the Law Faculty of the University of Coimbra . His family moved with him to the traditional university town . There, at the age of 17, he began writing his first poems, which he published in the local newspapers "Gazeta de Coimbra" and "O Novo Tempo". In 1881 he began to work in Mirandela as an assistant to the regional representative, in Portuguese Subdelegado do Procurador Régio , and later moved to Óbidos .

In 1894 Pessanha moved to the Portuguese colony in China, Macau . There he initially taught as a professor of history and philosophy at the newly founded Liceum Macau, after which he worked as an official in the land registry and as a judge in the Macaensian district court. Camilo Pessanha turned into an important figure in colonial social life, he assimilated with Chinese culture. He lived with an oriental woman who already had children, smoked opium and collected Chinese art and ceramics, which can now be seen in the Machado de Castro Museum in Coimbra. Between 1894 and 1915, Pessanha traveled back to Portugal several times for treatment, as his health could not tolerate the tropical and humid climate of Macao. Camilo Pessanha died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Macao on March 1, 1926 , suspected to be the cause of excessive opium use.

Works

Although Camilo Pessanha is considered to be one of the most important representatives of Portuguese symbolism alongside António Nobre , he cared relatively little about the publication and collection of his poems, most of which were disseminated orally. In addition, Pessanha was never dependent on the publication of his works, as he lived financially independently. In addition to his poems, Camilo Pessanha published a book in 1912 with the title "Esboço Crítico da Civilização Chinesa" , in German Critical Design of Chinese Civilization , and he also wrote a foreword with the title Ensino sobre Literatura Chinesa , in German "Teaching Chinese Literature" , for the work of Oito Elegias Chinesas in 1914.

His friend and admirer João de Castro Osório , both of whom knew each other from their studies in Coimbra, collected and categorized Pessanha's poems. In 1920 he published a volume of poetry under the title "Clepsydra" which contains nine sonnets and 14 poems.

Web links

• The collection of poems “Clepsydra” is completely available in the Portuguese-language version of the sister project Wikisource: Clepsydra