Mario Saa

Mario Saa , actually Mario Paes da Cunha e Sa , (born June 18, 1893 in Caldas da Rainha , Portugal ; † January 23, 1971 in Ervedal , municipality of Avis , Portugal) was a Portuguese writer, mainly lyric poet , eccentric and amateur Camões Researcher. He was a representative of literary modernism in Portugal.

Life

Saa came from a middle-class and wealthy background. In 1895 the family moved to the Avis district, where his father bought the local mountain, Monte de Pero Viegas, on which the family lived from then on and Saa lived until his death. His father was a well-known notary in Portugal and the young Mario first attended a school in Louriçal , then in Évora . There he began to study natural sciences in 1913. In 1917 Saa moved to the University of Lisbon , where he began to study mathematics until 1930 and then medicine. However, he did not graduate and remained without a degree all his life. In order to give his son a meaningful job, the elderly father decided from 1930 to hire him for life as administrator of family farms and to leave him part of his income. From this and from the abundant inheritance he was able to satisfy and finance his many interests and literary inclinations.

The poet died on January 23, 1971 on the family's local mountain near the municipality of Ervendal near Avis.

Eccentricity and literature

Mario Saa was interested in very many things at the same time: archeology , philosophy , genealogy , ancient geography , poetry , astrology , graphology and Camões research. As an amateur archaeologist, he was active in researching the Roman roads from the time of Emperor Antoninus Pius in Portugal, about which he also wrote a book. He purposely drove a very old and small car, about which he once wrote that if he drove fast, his monocle would be drawn into orbit by the wind . Saa was considered slightly crazy and completely different from most of the other writers of his time in Portugal. He was a frequent guest in the artist café " A Brasileira " in Lisbon. Saa was a great admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche , whose work had a great influence on him. He is said to have been very altruistic and very interested in exploring the female psyche. Most eccentric, however, was his amateur research on Luís de Camões: for example, he wrote a book about alleged poems that Camões' father, Simao Vaz de Camões, wrote and saw himself as its “discoverer” and editor. He also claimed to be the first person in the world to have found the real date of birth of Camões, whose exact life dates have not been established or recorded. He even wrote his own book about the scientifically unverified date of January 23, 1524.

In his work “A Invasão dos Judeus” he showed himself to be a pathological anti-Semite who saw himself surrounded by Jews whom he held responsible for the republic and the decline of the “Germanic race”. He wrote quite unpretentiously for the normal literary magazines such as Presença , Athena , Contemporânea , Momentum , Sudoeste , Tempo Presente .

Works (selection)

• Evangelho de Sao Vito , (The Gospel of Saint Vitus), 1917.
• Portugal Cristao - Novo ou os judeus na Republica , (Christian Portugal - or why the Jews are recently in the republic), 1921.
• Poemas heroicos - Simao Vaz de Camoes, Publicado de Mario Saa , 1921. (Heroic poems, Simao Vaz de Camoes - Simao de Camoes was the father of Luis de Camoes, science still doubts the real time of the verses).
• Camões no Maranhão (Camões in Maranhao) (Maranhao is an area in Brazil , Camões was never there, but it was one of the eccentricities of Saa that he ascribed something to Camões), 1922.
• Tabua Genealogica da Vararia Vaz de Camoes , 1924.
• A invaçao dos judeus (The Invasion of the Jews), pamphlet on literary modernity in Portugal and Europe, 1925.
• Proclamaçao a Patria: Uma alianca Luso-Catalao , 1931. (Patriotic proclamation of a Portuguese-Catalan alliance).
• Erridania: a geografia mais antiga do occidente , 1936.
• As memorias astrologias de Camões eo nascimento do poeta em 23. de Janeiro 1524 , (1940), (Astrological prophecy about Camoes and his birth on January 23, 1524; at least a 40-page brochure).
• As grandes vias da Lusitania - o interario de Antonio Pio (6 editions, from 1957 to 1967), (writing on the exploration of Roman roads in Lusitania from the time of Emperor Antoninus Pius).
• Poesia e alguma prosa (poems and other texts), compiled posthumously in 2006 from the individual magazines.

literature

• Michael Studemund-Halévy : Saa, Mário de , in: Handbuch des Antisemitismus , Volume 2/2, 2009, pp. 711f.

Web links

• Article on Infopedia (Portuguese)