pela dor de chamar e não ser escutado.
Simplesmente bater. O eco devolve
minha ânsia de entreabrir esses paços gelados.
A noite e o dia se confundem no esperar,
no bater e bater.
O tempo perdido certamente não existe.
É o casarão vazio e condenado.
THE HOUSE OF LOST TIME
I knocked on the doors of lost time. No one answered.
I knocked a second time, a third, a fourth.
No answer.
The house of lost time is half covered
with ivy; the other half is ashes.
A house where no one lives, and me knocking and calling out
because it hurts to call and not be heard.
Knocking, knocking. The echo returns
my desperate longing to open, at least a little, this frozen palace.
Night and day become the same haze in my waiting,
in my knocking and knocking.
Lost time surely doesn’t exist.
The imposing house is vacant and condemned.
NOTES ON THE POEMS
Many of Drummond’s poems were published in periodicals before being included in book collections. The notes provide initial publication dates only for the earliest poems, before his first book saw print, in 1930.
Seven-sided Poem
First published in December 1928.
The word gauche, in the third line of the poem in Portuguese, has the French meaning of “clumsy, awkward,” different from what the word usually means in English: “tactless, socially inept.” Much has been written about Drummond’s self-characterization as gauche, which recurs in “A mesa” (“The Table”), here. The Brazilian critic Affonso Romano de Sant’Anna used the notion as his central point of reference for analyzing the poet’s work in Drummond: o gauche no tempo. This book defines the poet’s gauche persona as an “eccentric” who, beset by “the constant disparity between his reality and outward reality,” is condemned to behaving like “a displaced person within the ensemble” (displaced person in English in the original).
Childhood
First published in December 1926.
In the Middle of the Road
In Portuguese the first four words evoke the beginning of Dante’s Inferno: “Nel mezzo del cammin.”
Written in 1924 or 1925 and first published in July 1928, this poem delighted writers and critics with modernist sympathies; it scandalized many others. And it continued to elicit reactions for years to come. In 1967 Drummond published a “biography” of the poem, which compiled all the published criticism on it that he could find. Eucanaã Ferraz brought out an expanded version of this book in 2010.
Square Dance
Published in November 1927.
Multitudinous Heart
Published in August 1925.
The Hotel Avenida, located on the Avenida Rio Branco and inaugurated in 1911, was a landmark of chic, fashionable Rio. It was built by the streetcar and electric company, and there was a streetcar terminal just opposite. The hotel’s ground floor was taken up by the Galeria Cruzeiro, a shopping arcade that included bars and restaurants. Drummond would write a long poem in homage to the hotel in 1957, the year it was demolished.
Social Notes
Published in December 1925.
The poem, whose original title is in the singular, was conceived as one of the “notes” in the Social Notes columns that were a regular feature of newspapers.
BREJO DAS ALMAS / SWAMP OF SOULS
Brejo das Almas was the name of a small municipality in Minas Gerais. Drummond presumably chose it for a title because of its literal meaning. In 1948, the municipality changed its name to Francisco Sá.
Don’t Kill Yourself
Third stanza, third line: In the original the language is directly Freudian and could be translated as “and repressed things, being sublimated.”
Confessions of a Man from Itabira
The Introduction explains the importance of iron for Itabira and the importance of Alfredo Duval for Drummond.
International Symposium on Fear
The poem was originally published under the title “Congresso Internacional de Poesia” [International Symposium on Poetry].
Family Portrait
Second stanza: Brazil became a republic in 1889.
Roll, World, Roll
This poem contains references to World War II. The Brazilian government’s policy of deactivating lighthouses to prevent further attacks from German submarines is referred to in the sixth stanza. The gas in the fourth stanza might be an allusion to the gas chambers.
May Afternoon
The custom of preserving the lower jawbones of deceased relatives was reported by the anthropologist James George Frazer, among others.
Second stanza: May is an autumn month in southern Brazil.
Make-believe Lullaby
The Portuguese title, “Cantiga de Enganar” (literally “Song that Deceives”), is a play on “cantiga de embalar,” which means cradle song, or lullaby.
The Table
First published as a chapbook, in 1951.
The poem narrates an imaginary ninetieth birthday party for Drummond’s father, who died in 1931 at the age of seventy. All of Drummond’s immediate blood relatives — parents, siblings, and offspring, alive or dead — are gathered around the table and described in turn. The deceased sister, Rosa Amélia, was born on her father’s twenty-second birthday. The oldest brother, Flaviano, remained in Itabira and followed in his father’s steps as a rancher. Altivo was the lawyer. José was the brother who never married. Drummond’s younger sister Mariinha, according to the poem, was somewhat estranged from the family. The eight “angels” were the brothers and sisters who died in infancy. The young female described as “my best or only verse” was Drummond’s daughter, Maria Julieta, born in 1928. Drummond’s mother, Julieta Augusta Drummond, died in 1948 at the age of seventy-eight.
FAZENDEIRO DO AR / FARMER IN THE CLOUDS
“Farmer (or Rancher) of the Air” would be a more literal rendering of the Portuguese title. Drummond’s biographer reported that he first used the expression in a letter to the Brazilian fiscal authorities, protesting the high tax levied on agricultural land that belonged to him but that earned him little or no money. He was not a wealthy fazendeiro da terra (farmer of the land), he explained, but a mere fazendeiro do ar (farmer of the air), then living in Belo Horizonte.
Green Library
The original English-language edition of the Library (described in the Introduction to this book) was published in 1898, in twenty volumes. The edition in Portuguese, which reordered the original selections and added a generous amount of Brazilian and Portuguese writing, was produced in Portugal but distributed in Brazil, from 1912 on. One of the translators for the massive project was Fernando Pessoa, still unknown and practically unpublished.
Second stanza: Drummond’s father was not a military colonel. The title Coronel was (and is sometimes still) conferred on wealthy landowners or political bosses in the Brazilian interior. Colonel has been used in a similar way in some Southern states.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Andrade, Carlos Drummond de. Alguma poesia — o livro em seu tempo. Ed. Eucanaã Ferraz. São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles, 2010.
——. Antologia poética. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1962).
——. A rosa do povo. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1945).
——. As impurezas do branco. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1973).
——. A vida passada a limpo. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2013 (1st ed. 1959).
——. Brejo das Almas. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2013.
——. Claro enigma. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1951).
——. Fazendeiro do ar. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1954).
——. In the Middle of the Road: Selected Poems. Trans. Jo
hn Nist. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1965.
——. José. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1942, in Poesias).
——. Lição de coisas. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1962).
——. Nova reunião: 23 livros de poesia, in 3 volumes. Rio de Janeiro: BestBolso, 2009.
——. Poesia 1930–62. Ed. Júlio Castañon Guimarães. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2012. Critical edition of Drummond’s first ten collections of poetry.
——. Sentimento do mundo. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2012 (1st ed. 1940).
——. The Minus Sign. Trans. Virginia de Araújo. Manchester: Carcanet New Press, 1981.
——. Travelling in the Family: Selected Poems. Ed. Thomas Colchie and Mark Strand. Trans. Thomas Colchie and Mark Strand, with Elizabeth Bishop and Gregory Rabassa. New York: Random House, 1986.
——. Uma pedra no meio do caminho: biografia de um poema. Expanded edition compiled by Eucanaã Ferraz. São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles, 2010.
Bosi, Alfredo. “‘A máquina do mundo’ entre o símbolo e a alegoria.” In Céu, inferno: ensaios de crítica literária e ideológica. São Paulo: Editora 34, 2003.
Cançado, José Maria. Os sapatos de Orfeu: biografia de Carlos Drummond de Andrade. São Paulo: Scritta, 1993. A number of biographical details for my Introduction were drawn from this work.
Neto, Geneton Moraes. O dossiê Drummond. São Paulo: Editora Globo, 2nd ed., 1994. Contains a transcription of the last interview with Carlos Drummond.
Sant’Anna, Affonso Romano de. Drummond: o gauche no tempo, 5th ed. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record, 2008 (1st ed. 1972).
Strand, Mark. Looking for Poetry: Poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Rafael Alberti and Songs from the Quechua. New York: Random House, 2002.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To translate Drummond was an old dream of mine, but the prime mover for this book was Luiz Schwarcz, who had no trouble convincing Jonathan Galassi — who also published Travelling in the Family—that it was time to bring more of the poet’s work into English. Eucanaã Ferraz, Luís de Andrea, Mafalda Lopes da Costa, Marcus Fabiano Gonçalves, and Mário Ribeiro da Costa helped me clarify the meaning of difficult passages. Jonathan Galassi made some welcome suggestions on my almost final renderings into English. Jill Schoolman and Martin Earl carefully read and critiqued the draft version of my Introduction. I am grateful to all of them as well as to the translators mentioned here.
INDEX OF POEM TITLES AND FIRST LINES IN PORTUGUESE
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Poem titles are in italics.
A bruxa
A casa do tempo perdido
A flor e a náusea
A fuga do real
A ingaia ciência
Alguns anos vivi em Itabira
A madureza, essa terrível prenda
A máquina do mundo
Amar
A mesa
Amor é privilégio de maduros
Amor e seu tempo
A poesia é incomunicável
A porta cerrada
A porta da verdade estava aberta
A puta
As contradições do corpo
As lições da infância
As plantas sofrem como nós sofremos
Ausência
A voz
Bati no portão do tempo perdido, ninguém atendeu
Beijo a mão do padre
Bela
Bem quisera escrevê-la
Biblioteca verde
Cada dia que passa incorporo mais esta verdade, de que eles não vivem
Campo de flores
Canção amiga
Cantiga de enganar
Canto esponjoso
Carlos, sossegue, o amor
Carta
Caso do vestido
Cerâmica
Chega um tempo em que não se diz mais: meu Deus
Como esses primitivos que carregam por toda parte o maxilar inferior
Comunhão
Confidência do itabirano
Confissão
Congresso Internacional do Medo
Convívio
Coração numeroso
Cuidado
Declaração em juízo
Depois de tantos combates
Desaparecimento de Luísa Porto
Destruição
De tudo ficou um pouco
Deus me deu um amor no tempo de madureza
Dizem que à noite Márgara passeia
Domicílio
E como eu palmilhasse vagamente
E como ficou chato ser moderno
Elegia
Elegia 1938
E não gostavas de festa
É sempre no passado aquele orgasmo
Especulações em torno da palavra homem
Estamos quites, irmão vingador
Esta paisagem? Não existe. Existe espaço
Este retrato de família
Eterno
Eu não vi o mar
Eu preparo uma canção
Fabrico um elefante
Foi no Rio
Ganhei (perdi) meu dia
Há pouco leite no país
Idade madura
Infância
Jardim
João amava Teresa que amava Raimundo
Lagoa
Mãos dadas
Mas que coisa é homem
Meu corpo não é meu corpo
Meu pai montava a cavalo, ia para o campo
Morte do leiteiro
Movimento da espada
Mulher vestida de homem
Na curva perigosa dos cinquenta
Não cantarei amores que não tenho
Não faças versos sobre acontecimentos
Não se mate
Não serei o poeta de um mundo caduco
Na pequena cidade
Negro jardim onde violas soam
Nesta cidade do Rio
No café semideserto
No caminho onde pisou um deus
No céu também há uma hora melancólica
No deserto de Itabira
No meio do caminho
No meio do caminho tinha uma pedra
Nossa mãe, o que é aquele
Nota social
Nudez
Nudez, último véu da alma
Numa incerta hora fria
… O apartamento abria
O boi
O deus mal informado
O elefante
O enterrado vivo
O marciano encontrou-me na rua
O meu amor faísca na medula
O minuto depois
O mundo não vale o mundo
O padre passa na rua
O poeta chega na estação
O quarto em desordem
O que a gente procura muito e sempre não é isto nem aquilo. É outra
Os amantes se amam cruelmente
Os cacos da vida, colados, formam uma estranha xícara
Ó solidão do boi no campo
Os ombros suportam o mundo
Os poderes infernais
Os últimos dias
Paisagem: como se faz
Papai, me compra a Biblioteca Internacional de Obras Célebres
Peço desculpa de ser
Pede-se a quem souber
Perdi o bonde e a esperança
Perguntas
Poema da purificação
Poema de sete faces
Poema patético
Por muito tempo achei que a ausência é falta
Preso à minha classe e a algumas roupas
Procura da poesia
Procurar o quê
Provisoriamente não cantaremos o amor
Quadrilha
Quando nasci, um anjo torto
Que a terra
há de comer
Que barulho é esse na escada
Que pode uma criatura senão
Quero conhecer a puta
Resíduo
Retrato de família
Rola mundo
Science Fiction
Segredo
Sentimento do mundo
Sinto que o tempo sobre mim abate
Soneto da perdida esperança
Tarde de maio
Tenho apenas duas mãos
Todos os meus mortos estavam de pé, em círculo
Trabalhas sem alegria para um mundo caduco
Três no café
Tristeza no céu
Uma canção cantava-se a si mesma
Unidade
Verdade
Versos à boca da noite
Viagem na família
Vida menor
Vi moças gritando
INDEX OF POEM TITLES AND FIRST LINES IN ENGLISH
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Poem titles are in italics.
Absence
After many battles
A little of everything remained
All my dead were standing in a circle
A Martian ran into me on the street
And as I slowly rambled down
And how boring, after all, it is to be modern
And the earth will swallow us
And you didn’t like parties
Anyone who knows
A song was singing to itself
A time comes when you stop saying: my God
Beautiful
Be Careful
Black garden where guitars are playing
Bound by my class and some clothes
Buried Alive
But what is man
Carlos, calm down, love
Chaos in the Bedroom
Childhood
Coexistence
Communion
Confession
Confessions of a Man from Itabira
Multitudinous Heart Page 19