> the really universal brazilian poets appeared only after
> modernism, and the best ones are manuel bandeira,
> carlos drummond and joão cabral.
> there are others, such as jorge de lima.
> i don't know about pre-modern hispano-american poetry,
> but i suspect it's not truly universal (i'm not saying it's not
> good).
> i know one poetic masterpiece by octavio paz, pasado en
> claro, and i think borges had a finer understanding of the
> world than most european intellectuals.
> the official avant-garde from brazil, which comes from
> the hiper-metropolitan são paulo, coudn't be more lacking
> in sensitivity. they might be like contemporary bourgouis
> anglo-saxon avant-garde, but worse. they mecanically
> produce alliterations, visual tipographic games and
> other technical poetic effects and they have also formed
> a horrible school of translators, giving us terrible versions
> of homer, etc. the former brazilian poetry translators were
> also generally bad, but for the opposite reason: lack of
> freedom and vivacity. usually the best poetry translators
> in portugese come from portugal, but i usually prefer
> well-chosen anglo-saxon translators for their modernity.
> yet, we have had recently superb novels translators here
> (the french, the russian), fine unpretentious sensitive men.
> i worship some portugese language classics, such as
> camões, padre antônio vieira, machado de assis and the
> three poets mentioned above, but i can't help seeing
> both latin-american and portugese-speaking culture as
> relatively provincial.
please don't get me wrong: i'm not saying only geniuses have
the right to be artists. i can enjoy some popular lyrics and
many simple, unpretensious poets, but i don't think neither
vallejo nor neruda give us a vision of the world as broad
as eliot or rilke or celan.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 2:03 PM
> Subject: Re: "incapacity"
>
>
> Ana:
>
> I simply don't recognize your account of Latin
> American poetry. Going back to at least the
> modernismo of the late 19th century the major
> poets have been in incessant dialogue with
> European practice. How could it have been
> otherwise, when so many have spent large parts of
> their lives in Europe? You might want to look at Jason Weiss'
>
> The Lights of Home: A Century of Latin American
> Writers in Paris. And also Echavarren, Kozer and
> Sefami's seminal anthology of the neobarroco,
> Medusario. Muestra de poesia latinoamericana.
>
> Best,
>
> Mark
>
> At 10:49 PM 12/31/2002, you wrote:
>>i think perhaps it's a cultural question, a question of habit.
>>latin americans are thaught not to be too cosmopolitan.
>>i think joão cabral was the only great brazilian poet who
>>was fully aware of french and anglo-saxon modernism,
>>and most people criticized this finest soul for being too
>>interested in strange cultures.
>>of course paz and borges were open and cosmopolitan.
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Randolph Healy"
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 8:14 AM
>>Subject: Re: "incapacity"
>>
>>
>>>Hi Ana,
>>>
>>>when you talk of people's lack of intelligence and incapacity to
>>>understand, do you include yourself, or are you a different kind of
>>>entity?
>>>
>>>best
>>>
>>>Randolph
>>>
>>>2003/1/1 Ana Olinto <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>people just TALK about cosmopolitism, but lack of intelligence
>>>>means incapacity to UNDERSTAND - and not incapacity
>>>>merely to be interested in - another way of thinking.
>
|