The presence of Portuguese contemporary poetry : pp. 150-155 at the Struga 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 Struga Poetry Evenings (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 Portugal (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 Skopje, 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 Macedonian language — 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 Ohrid 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- Bogomil Gjuzel 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 Mateja Matevski, 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.