João Cabral de Melo Neto

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Sculpture in Recife

João Cabral de Melo Neto (pronunciation ˈʒwɐ̃w kaˈbɾaw dʒi ˈmɛlu ˈnɛtu ) (born January 9, 1920 in Recife , Pernambuco , † October 9, 1999 in Rio de Janeiro ) was a Brazilian poet and diplomat.

Life

Cabral was the son of Luís Antônio Cabral de Melo and Carmen Carneiro Leão Cabral de Melo. He was the older brother of the historian Evaldo Cabral de Mello and the cousin of the sociologist Gilberto Freyre and the poet Manuel Bandeira . He spent his youth in northeastern Brazil along the Rio Capibaribe river . In Recife he attended the Colégio de Ponte d'Uchoa , a Marist school, from 1930 to 1935 , and from 1937 worked in various administrations.

In 1940 he traveled to Rio de Janeiro and there came into contact with modernists such as Murilo Mendes , Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Jorge de Lima . In 1942 he published his first volume of poetry, Pedra do sono ( Stone of Sleep ). In 1942 he settled in Rio de Janeiro, where he entered the administrative service in 1943 and the diplomatic service in 1945. In 1946 he married Stella Maria Barbosa de Oliveira, and the marriage had two children. In 1947 he went to Barcelona as Vice Consul , where he ran a small printing company and edited works by Brazilian and Catalan poets. There he met Joan Brossa , Antoni Tàpies and Joan Miró .

In 1950 he was transferred to London, in 1952 he came under suspicion of subversion and adherence to communist ideology in the wake of the Cold War and distrust of intellectuals. Getúlio Vargas had him, Antônio Houaiss and three others removed from the Foreign Ministry on March 23, 1953. He was recalled to Brazil but did not return to Pernambuco until 1953 after the Supreme Court indictment was withdrawn.

In 1954 he took part in the Congresso Brasileiro de Poesia . By order of the Supreme Court, he was reinstated in the diplomatic service. He returned to Spain in 1956 and carried out historical research in the India Archives in Seville, the results of which were published by the Foreign Ministry under the title O Brasil no arquivo das Índias de Sevilha . His diplomatic career continued with Marseille in 1958, the Embassy in Madrid in 1960, Seville again in 1962, in 1964 he worked as an advisor to the United Nations in Geneva , and in 1967 he was appointed Brazilian Consul General in Barcelona. Further stations as Brazilian consul were Paraguay in 1969, Senegal in 1972, Ecuador in 1979, Honduras in 1981 and Portugal in 1982. After the death of his wife Stella in 1986 he married the poet Marly de Oliveira and in 1990 he entered the Retirement. In 1992 he represented Brazil at the World Exhibition in Seville . In 1993 he had to undergo several intestinal operations, whereby a treatment error, excessively strong impact of the operating light on the retina , led to almost complete blindness with only peripheral vision, loss of reading ability, depressive process and hindrance to literary work. In 1998 he published his last poem Pedem-me um poema ( ask me for a poem ). He died on October 9, 1999 and was buried in the Cemitério de São João Batista cemetery in Rio de Janeiro.

Literary work

In poetry, João Cabral belongs to the post-war generation of the “ Geração de 45 ” (Generation 45), who were looking for new forms of expression and who had completely turned their backs on romanticism and sentimentalism . In addition to Cabral as possibly the greatest modern poet in Brazil and a representative of Neomodernismo , the third generation of Modernismo Brasileiro from 1945 to 1975, above all Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Lêdo Ivo , among the prose writers these include Guimarães Rosa , Clarice Lispector and Lygia Fagundes Telles . In his metaphorless, sober poems he deals with the social problems of his home state Pernambuco . His ties to his homeland are expressed, for example, in the poem O Rio about the Capibaribe. His A educação pela pedra is considered a magnum opus , alongside his Morte e vida Severina, also published in 1966 .

The international fame can be dated to the year 1966 with the staged performance of "Death and Life Severino" in São Paulo and the music of Chico Buarque de Hollanda .

He was an elected member of the Academia Pernambucana de Letras and since 1968 of the Academia Brasileira de Letras . In Germany, the translator from the Brazilian Curt Meyer-Clason has rendered outstanding services to his work.

Works

Complete edition
  • Obra completa. Nova Aguilar, Rio de Janeiro 1994.
Individual works
  • Considerações sobre o poeta dormindo. Renovação, Recife 1941. (Essay Reflections on the Sleeping Poet ).
  • Pedra do sono [self-published], Recife 1942. (Poems stone of sleep ).
  • Os três mal-amados. Revista do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro 1943 (prose poems The Three Bad Lovers )
  • O englheiro. Amigos da Poesia, Rio de Janeiro 1945. (Poems The Engineer ).
  • Psicologia da composição com a Fábula de Anfion e Antiode. O Livro Inconsúltil, Barcelona 1947. (Poems psychology of composition with the fable of Amphion and Antiode ).
  • Joan Miró. Editions de l'Oc, Barcelona 1950. - Cadernos de Cultura do MEC, Rio de Janeiro 1952. (Essay Joan Miró , with original engravings by Joan Miró).
  • O cão sem plumas. O Livro Inconsútil, Barcelona 1950. - Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1984. (Poems The dog without feathers ).
  • O rio ou Relação da viagem que faz o Capibaribe de sua nascente à cidade do Recife. Comissão do IV Centenário da Cidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 1954. (Poems The River or travel description of the Capibaribe from its source to Recife ).
  • Paisagens com figuras 1954–1955. José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1955. (Poems Landscapes with Figures ).
  • Duas águas. poemas reunidos. José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1956. (Collected poem Two Waters ).
  • Quaderna. Guimarães Editores, Lisbon 1960. (Poem Cube ).
  • Dois parliamentos. [Self-published], Madrid 1961. (Poems Two Parliaments ).
  • Terceira Feira. [Self-published], Rio de Janeiro 1961. (Poems Third Mass , contains serial, 1959–1961 , Dois parlamentos and Quaderna ).
  • A educação pela pedra. [Self-published], Rio de Janeiro 1966. (Poems Education through the Stone ).
  • Morte e vida severina e outros poemas em voz alta. [Self-published], Rio de Janeiro 1966. - Sabiá, Rio de Janeiro 1967. - José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1974. - Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1994. (Poems Death and Life of Severino and other poems spoken aloud ).
  • Poesias completas 1940-1965. Sabiá, Rio de Janeiro 1968. - José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1986. (The Complete Poems, 1940–1965).
  • Museu de tudo. José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1975. ( Museum of Poems of Everything ).
  • A escola das facas, poesias, 1975-1980. José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1980. (Poems 1975–1980 The School of Knives ).
  • Auto do frade. José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro 1984. - Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1984. (Poem The Monk's Way ).
  • Agrestes. Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1985. (Poems Rauhland ).
  • Crime on Calle Relator. Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1987. (Poem Crime in Relator Street ).
  • Primeiros Poemas. Faculdade de Letras da UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 1990. ( First poems ).
  • Sevilha andando. Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1990. (Poems going to Seville ).
Translations into German
  • Selected poems. Translation: Curt Meyer-Clason . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1969. (edition suhrkamp 295).
  • The dog without feathers. Translation: Willy Keller. Rot, Stuttgart 1969. New translation: Curt Meyer-Clason. Claassen, Düsseldorf 1970.
  • Severino's death and life. Pernambucan Christmas game. Translation: Curt Meyer-Clason. Peter Hammer, Wuppertal 1975. - Edition diá, St. Gallen, Wuppertal 1985. - Piper, Munich, Zurich 1988.
  • Poetry album 98th anthology. Translation: Curt Meyer-Clason. Selection: Bernd Jentzsch. New life, Berlin 1975.
  • The way of the monk. Translation: Curt Meyer-Clason. Edition diá, St. Gallen, Cologne 1988.
  • Education by the stone. Transmission and Afterword: Curt Meyer-Clason. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1989. (Selection from the volumes of poetry from O Enheiro to Crime na Calle Relator ).
  • The river (The Triptych of the Capibaribe). Translation: Curt Meyer-Clason. Edition diá, St. Gallen 1993. (Contains: The dog without feathers , The river or travel description of the Capibaribe from its source to Recife , Death and Life of Severino. Pernambucan Christmas play ).
  • E agora José? And now José? Transmission and introduction: Curt Meyer-Clason. Attempto, Tübingen 1996. (anthology of poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and João Cabral de Melo Neto; Portuguese-German).

Awards

Literature prizes:

Order of Merit:

literature

In Brazil there is now a very extensive secondary literature on João Cabral, the Brazilian National Library already has over 70 monographs and new university publications appear every year.

  • Hans Paschen: Cabral de Melo Neto, João. In: Critical lexicon for contemporary foreign-language literature , nachschlage.NET/KLfG
  • Zila Mamede: Civil geometria. Bibliografia crítica, analítica e anotada de João Cabral de Melo Neto 1942/1982 . EDUSP, São Paulo 1987.
  • João Alexandre Barbosa: Basic terms in the work of João Cabral de Melo Neto . In: Mechtild Strausfeld (ed.): Brazilian literature. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1984. pp. 289-318.
  • Georg Rudolf Lind : João Cabral de Melo Neto - model case of an objective poet . In: Studia Iberica. (Festschrift Hans Bottle). Francke, Bern, Munich 1973. pp. 353-370.
  • Alcides Villaça: Expansão e limite da poesia de João Cabra . In: Alfredo Bosi (ed.): Leitura de poesia . Editora Ática, São Paulo 1996, ISBN 85-08-06121-8 , pp. 141-169.

Web links

Commons : João Cabral de Melo Neto  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • João Cabral de Melo Neto . In: Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural de Arte e Cultura Brasileiras . Itaú Cultural, São Paulo: As of 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018 (Brazilian Portuguese).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnaldo Sampaio de Moraes Godoy : Direito e literatura: o poeta João Cabral de Melo Neto no Supremo Tribunal Federal. O mandado de segurança nº 2.264 . In: Revista Jus Navigandi . tape 12 , no. 1465 , July 6, 2007 (Brazilian Portuguese, [1] [accessed April 28, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Ivana Melhem Deoud: O que destina o homem à cegueira? Cegos são os outros ou somos todos: uma leitura do Ensaio de Saramago e do Relatório de Sábato . Faculdade de Letras da UFMG, Belo Horizonte 2010, p. 63–66 (Brazilian Portuguese, [2] [PDF; accessed April 28, 2018]).
  3. ↑ See also the literary arrangement by Julián Fuks : Histórias de literatura e cegueira. Record, Rio de Janeiro 2007, ISBN 978-85-01-07943-5 .
  4. ^ José Castello: João Cabral de Melo Neto. O homem sem alma. Diário de tudo. Bertrand Brasil, [o. Place] 2006, ISBN 85-286-1176-0 .
  5. ↑ Georg Rudolf Lind: A cement flute . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung of February 13, 1971.
  6. ^ Dorothee Sölle : Foreword. In: João Cabral de Melo Neto: Death and Life of Severino. Pernambucan Christmas game . Hammer, Wuppertal 1975. pp. 5-9.
  7. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schmitt: A knife only as a blade . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , 17./18. March 1990.
  8. ^ Prêmio Camões de Literatura | Biblioteca Nacional. In: gov.br. www.bn.gov.br, accessed April 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
  9. ↑ a b Cidadãos Estrangeiros Agraciados com Ordens Portuguesas. Presidência da República Portuguesa, accessed on April 28, 2018 (search result for "João Cabral de Melo Neto".).
personal data
SURNAME Cabral de Melo Neto, João
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian lyric poet and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Recife , Pernambuco
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1999
Place of death Rio de Janeiro