The presence of Portuguese contemporary : pp. 150-155 at the Poetry Evenings A presença da poesia portuguesa contemporânea no Festival de Poesia de Struga Lidija Kapusevska-Drakulevska1 JANEIRO/JUNHO DE 2019 Abstract: The idea of political union of a Resumo: A ideia de união política de uma Euro- N.º 2

democratic Europe must be founded pa democrática deve basear-se na sua dimen- — upon its cultural dimension. Poetry is a são cultural. A poesia é uma dimensão muito very important dimension of European importante da civilização europeia e um exer- civilization and an essential exercise of cício essencial da liberdade criativa para apro- creative freedom for approximating indi- ximar seres humanos individuais e países. O vidual human beings and countries. The tema deste artigo é a presença da poesia con-

E-LETRAS COM VIDA topic of this paper will be the presence temporânea portuguesa no Festival de Poesia of Portuguese contemporary poetry at the de Struga, um festival internacional de poesia (SPE), an international iniciado em 1962. O Festival de Poesia de Stru- poetry festival started in 1962. The SPE has a ga tem um papel muito importante na receção very significant role in reception and -promo e promoção de literaturas e culturas alternati- ting the other literatures and cultures to the vas para os autores e leitores macedónios. Macedonian authors and readership. A seleção da poesia contemporânea portu- The selection of Portuguese contemporary po- guesa no Festival de Poesia de Struga incluiu etry at the SPE included several books: vários livros: 1. The poetry of Vasco Graça Moura, the 1. A poesia de Vasco Graça Moura, o ven- «Golden Wreath» Winner at the SPE (2004); cedor da «Coroa de Louros» no Festival de 2. The selected poems of Casimiro de Brito Poesia de Struga (2004), (2006); 2. Os poemas selecionados de Casimiro de 3. One anthology of the Portuguese contem- Brito (2006) e porary poetry (2001). 3. Uma antologia da poesia contemporânea The literary translation has a very important portuguesa (2001). mission: every Encounter with the Other cre- A tradução literária tem uma missão muito ates a dialogue, but it also means Self-knowl- importante: cada Encontro com o Outro cria edge. This poetic «joint-venture» of Macedonia um diálogo, mas também leva ao Autoconhe- and (both with republican traditions cimento. Esta poética «associação» da Mace- in constructing the collective memory and his- dónia e Portugal (ambos países com tradições tory) through the SPE could be a good symbol: republicanas na construção da memória cole- it does contribute to a long tradition of uniting tiva e da história) através do Festival de Poe- the world through the word of the poets. sia de Struga poderia ser um bom símbolo: ela contribui para uma longa tradição de unir o Keywords: Portuguese contemporary poetry; mundo através da palavra dos poetas. Struga Poetry Evenings; Vasco Graça Moura; Casimiro de Brito.

1 Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of , Faculty of Philology «Blaze Koneski»-Skopje, R. Macedonia, Department of General and Comparative Literature.

150 Palavras-Chaves: Poesia contemporânea por- Luis Borges’ short story with the same title: a tuguesa; Festival de Poesia de Struga; Vasco book with no beginning and no end which, ac- Graça Moura; Casimiro de Brito. cording to the narrator, originates from India.

In order for it to work, conscience needs The longing for India as a universal longing un- another conscience; the text needs another text; the culture bound by time or space may be one of the first needs another culture. instances of intercultural encounters between (Yuri Lotman) two geographically distant cultures within one single Europe — the Portuguese and the In the age of great discoveries, in 1497, to be Macedonian. Oddly enough, the «encounter» more exact, Portuguese explorer Vasco da is marked by absence, that is, it excludes the Gama sailed out of Lisbon in search of a sea presence of the subjects imaginarily orbiting route to India. In ancient times, circa 330 BC, around the shared object of desire. The en- Alexander the Great set out from the territory counter is indirect, realized through a motif of what today are the Balkans, including my shared by both cultural memories without country, the Republic of Macedonia, on a cam- even being aware of one another. Never- paign to the East and reached India. theless, the encounter suggests a certain harmony between these two cultures, since India! One should only think of the delight the self-imagological function performed — with which American Walt Whitman wrote his recognizing oneself in the Other — attests late-19th-century poem «Passage to India», ho- to a kindred sensibility pervading these two nouring the sea route around the world star- different national identities, considering the ting from India in the East, as well as his vision fact that the Other — in this case India — is of an interconnected world. shared.

Then think of A passage to India, the 1985 Os- The history of this encounter is further de- car-winning David Lean film. Based on E.M. veloped in Luís de Camões’ national poem Forster’s novel, the director manages early The Lusiads, published in 1572, ending with on to introduce the mysterious and fright- an allusion to Alexander the Great and con- ening mien of the unknown, as well as its calm taining a particular geographical reference to and beauty tempting us to explore the maze Macedonia. The translation of these cantos of our very souls. «India forces one to come would be the first poetic translations from face to face with oneself. It can be rather dis- Portuguese into — the turbing», says Mrs. Moore. This very idea lies latter standardized after the Second World behind the terrifying story of the strange, «holy» and monstrous book of sand from Jorge

151 War when the Republic of Macedonia became Macedonia is considered a poetic nation. Not part of the Yugoslav Federation. only that, but there is also a myth regarding the Macedonians’ talent for poetry, particularly This past decade, first in the new millennium, lyric poetry. This myth has been developed by was marked by the most intense literary and 20th century Macedonian poets and critics and cultural contacts between the two countries, perpetuated by a number of European poets primarily at the international poetry festival and prose writers familiar with contemporary Struga Poetry Evenings held each summer Macedonian poetry. The Struga Poetry Eve- since 1962 on the Lake coast, in a car- nings festival has for half a century been at- nival manner honouring the Queen of the testing to this exceptional appeal to the magic Arts — Poetry. In fact, the following three col- of poetry and of the wondrous word-play on lections of contemporary Portuguese poetry Macedonian soil. have been published: According to Martin Heidegger, only poetry has 1. An anthology of contemporary Portu- the power to reveal the truth of the world. We guese poetry (Vasco Graça Moura, Egito live in a world that is a symphony of horrors, in Gonçalves, Pedro Tamen, Fernando Pinto do difficult times filled with violence, hatred and Amaral, Paulo Teixeira, Ana Hatherly, Rosa depravity. The language of poetry, however, is Alice Branco) entitled Sluh-zatočenik (2001), the language of love, and outburst of yearning or Hearing-Prisoner, selected by Manuela Jú- and delight, of pain and loss, deeply familiar dice and translated by Aneta Manevska from to all and to each one of us (Merwin, 2005: 7). Portuguese, Paskal Gilevski from French and Despite the differences in language and- cul from English; ture, the love of poetry, the appreciation and

2. A collection of poems by Vasco Graça need for it are neither national nor ethnic, but Moura, winner of the Struga Poetry Evenings deeply rooted in human nature. That is why Grand Prix, the Golden Wreath, translated we need a poetry festival. That is why we have from French by , Jordan a poetry festival. Plevneš and Vlada Urošević, and «Poetry is a very important dimension of Eu-

3. Poems by Casimiro de Brito entitled Lju- ropean civilization and an essential exercise bovta, smrtta i drugi poroci, that is Love, death of creative freedom for approximating indivi- and other vices, published in the prestigious dual human beings and countries» — stated Pleiades edition, selected by Monserrat Gibert Portuguese poet Vasco Graça Moura upon re- and translated by Mateja Matevski. ceiving the Golden Wreath at the 2004 Struga Poetry Evenings. He continued to say that:

152 […] the inclusion of a representative of the documents the scars of time. As Anna Akhma- Portuguese language and literature in the tova claimed sometime at the beginning of the long list of the nominees for the Golden previous century, «When I write, I remember, Wreath does contribute to a clearer and when I remember, I write». The imagery of strong image of the multiplicity of iden- tities which form Europe. [...] The idea of memory present in poetry is invisible, but political union of a democratic Europe could go from absence to presence, from co- must be founded upon its cultural dimen- vertness to vividness developing at the level sion. (2004: 6). of language/writing. Thus, memory serves the purpose of establishing a hyperreality, as «Vasco Graça Moura is an erudite poet, a poet Baudrillard would say, generates something of intellectual sensibility» — writes esteemed real without reality. Writing as memory has a Macedonian poet Vlada Urošević, one of the magical dimension: preserves the written and translators of Graça Moura from French, in reveals it in a dialogue with the interlocutors, the preface to the Macedonian edition of his readers, or descendents. poetry. He further states: Hence, according to Peter Sloterdijk, poetry is a world religion free of superstition; the Deeply rooted in the Portuguese tradition, Vasco Graça Moura’s knowledge and ex- world poetic agreement is a prerequisite for perience are confirmed and enriched by the social agreement in legal form, and to the artistic works he is familiar with or come to this world is to come into language. feels as his own. There are many aspects The ideas of cultural space and identity pro- in Vasco Graça Moura’s work that justify duce the issue of language. Writing is as much the critic’s opinion of him as a poet of a cosmopolitan/intercultural space as it is a true European identity: in his works he underlies the uniqueness of the European field of national determination, since every culture, its interrelatedness and capacity writer’s fundamental need and desire is to to erase the national boundaries and es- constantly be in transition, transfer, transla- tablish a wide domain of spiritual kinship. tion, as Salman Rushdie states. Thus the poet (2004: 10-12). has many motherlands, and the poet’s Home is multiple. Every work of art, even if written in Where did poetry, this empire of the spirit, get one of the major languages, longs for a trans- the power to establish unity of Europe and the lation into another language since the other world? Poetry is the ancient language of me- language is a different matrix of experien- mory, the «mnemonic art par excellence», as cing the world, and the desire for translation per the words of Renate Lachmann. It assumes is a desire to conquer the world (Ќулавкова, the role of collective memory and consciously 2010: 104). The feats such as Vasco da Gama’s

153 or Alexander the Great’s are history. In the 21st Casimiro de Brito and his obsession with Eros century, in an age of globalization, the poet’s and Thanathos as every person’s two crucial expression aims to remind us of the magic of existential tattoos recall Mateja Matevski’s the word that has never gone, but is, unfortu- moderate poetic expression and his identical nately, often forgotten. And it is translation as obsession. The Eluardian overtones in the meta-creation that performs the noble func- verses of Egito Gonçalves’ Lettera amorosa tion of bridging the gaps between peoples. are reminiscent of Petre M. Andreevski’s col- Every encounter with another literature/cul- lection Denicija, whereas the postmodernist ture implies dialogue, exchanging values, ex- poetry of Rosa Alice Branco resembles the panding horizons, as well as self-knowledge. poetic discourse of Macedonian poetess Lidija Particularly when there is absence of dialogue Dimkovska, this year’s winner of the interna- from all levels of our modernity, the efforts tional Hubert Burda Prize, an extraordinary to present and transfer values into another example of a union of the poetic expression linguistic and cultural setting prove a virtual and the theoretical academic language, an feat, on a par with the abovementioned con- intellectual interplay of creation and meta- quering or exploratory missions of old. Hence -creation. If we also consider the intersections Macedonian poets — envoys of contemporary or correspondences in the titles of individual Portuguese poetry in Macedonian — assume poems, such as Egito Gonçalves’ and Vlada the roles of modern-day cultural missionaries. Urošević’ «Aldeberan», or «Auto-de-fé» by both What is more, reading contemporary Portu- Paulo Teixeira and Macedonian poet Mihail Ren- guese poets in Macedonian offers the -pos džov, it is obvious that poetic expression, as all sibility of a relational interpretation of their works of art, is open to communication with all poetry in one’s own linguistic/literary/cultural texts past and future in the established series code. If identity is formed and defined through of cognate relations. «Poetry continues the and by alterity, metaphorically speaking, the beauty of the world, aestheticizes the world», Portuguese and Macedonian poetic pantheon concludes Gaston Bachelard in his study The has been built by poetic pairs — poets compa�- poetics of reverie (p. 226). rable in their poetic craft at some level. With Is Poetry a gift of nature or a gift of the poet? extreme caution, I would like to suggest the Through dreams and fantasy, but also through following analogies: the resonances of reason, poetry leads us into Vasco Graça Moura’s poetic discourse tinged our spiritual gardens where we have thrilling with a subtle irony as an essential philo- encounters with the world and the Others as sophy is akin to the poetic worldview of Vlada well as with our own selves. This is the digni- Urošević, and the lyrically meditative voice of fied living provided to us by any true poetry.

154 With incredible ease, it establishes a new, Hajdeger, M. (1982). Mišljenje i pevanje. Nolit. Beograd; more dignified poetic order. Ќулавкова, К. (2010). Копнеж по превод. So «Get drunk», in the words of Charles Bau- Em: Х.М.П. Гаго. Прирачник за заведување принцези/J.M.P. Gago. Mannuel pour séduire delaire: des princesses. Poetiki. Skopje. Lachmann, R. (2002). Phantasia/Memoria/Rhe- Time to get drunk! torica. Zagreb. Matica Hrvatska; Don’t be martyred slaves of Time, Матевски, М. (2006). Од сјајот на Get drunk! лирскотокон бездните на метафизичкото Stay drunk! (читајќи го Казимиро де Брито). Em: К. Де On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever! Брито. Љубовта, смртта и други пороци. (Избор Монсерат Жиберт, препев и поговор Матеја Матевски). СВП. Струга; And come to Macedonia at the Struga Poetry Merwin, W.S. (2005). Address to the Struga Evenings! Poetry Festival. Em: Selected poems/Odbrani pesni. Struga. [s.n.]; Bibliography Плевнеш, Ј. (2001). Поезија на големите Bachelard, G. (1982). Poetika sanjarije. «Veselin откритија. Em: Слух-заточеник: избор од Masleša». Sarajevo; современата португалска поезија. СВП. Струга; Бодријар, Ж. (2001). Симулакруми и симулација. Магор. Скопје; Слотердајк, П. (2006). Доаѓање на свет — Доаѓање до збор. Темплум. Скопје; Брито, К. де (2006). Љубовта, смртта и други пороци. (Избор Монсерат Жиберт, препев Слух-заточеник: Избор од современата и поговор Матеја Матевски). СВП. Струга. португалска поезија. (2001). (Избор Мануела Жудис, предговор Јордан Плевнеш, препев Diversity. Acedido em 25 de março de 2019, од португалски Анета Маневска, од em: http://diversity.org.mk/; француски Паскал Гилевски, од англиски Б. Djurčinov, M. (1988). Nova makedonska književ- Ѓузел). СВП. Струга; nost (1945-1980). Nolit. Beograd; Struga Poetry Evenings. Acedido em 25 de Graça Moura, V. (2004). Poemas escolhidos/ março de 2019, em: http://www.svp.org.mk; Odbrani pesni. (Избор Влада Урошевиќ, Urosevic, V. (2004). Deepening the sensibility препев од француски Матеја Матевски, (on the poetry of Vasco Graça Moura). Em: Јордан Плевнеш, Влада Урошевиќ). СВП. V. Graça Moura. Poemas escolhidos/Odbrani Струга; pesni. СВП. Струга.

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