Manuel de Barros was a Mato Grosso poet, born on December 19, 1916, in the city of Cuiabá. After receiving a farm from his father as an inheritance, he became a farmer in the Pantanal. But before that, he lived in Rio de Janeiro, where he studied law. Fame as a writer came late, in the 1980s.
The author died on November 13, 2014, in Campo Grande. And he left books appreciated both by the common reader and by academic critics. In life, the poet also received literary awards, such as the Jabuti. Your works present neologisms, fragmentation and autobiographical traits.
Read too: Lygia Fagundes Telles — another award-winning Brazilian writer
Topics of this article
- 1 - Summary about Manoel de Barros
- 2 - Biography of Manoel de Barros
- 3 - Characteristics of the work of Manoel de Barros
- 4 - Main works of Manoel de Barros
- 5 - Poems by Manoel de Barros
- 6 - Phrases of Manoel de Barros
Summary about Manoel de Barros
Brazilian writer Manoel de Barros was born in 1916 and died in 2014.
The poet, graduated in Law, was also a farmer in the Pantanal.
His poetry presents regional elements, neologisms and autobiographical traits.
Manoel de Barros is the author of works such as The Book of Ignorance It is invented memories.
Biography of Manoel de Barros
O writer Brazilian Manuel de Barros was born on December 19, 1916, in Cuiabá, in the state of Mato Grosso. Months later, his family moved to a farm in the Pantanal. The poet was five years old when he began to be literate by his aunt Rosa. And, in 1925, he entered a boarding school in the city of Campo Grande.
Then he studied at a boarding school in Rio de Janeiro. In 1934, he enrolled in the Law course in that same city. The following year, he joined the Brazilian Communist Party. Two years later, in 1937, the author published his first book — Poems conceived without sin.
Around 1941, he worked as a lawyer for the Fishermen's Union of Rio de Janeiro. Between 1943 and 1945, he visited the United States, Bolivia, Peru, Italy, France and Portugal. Back to Brazil, Left the Communist Party in 1945, and married Stella dos Santos Cruz around 1946.
Do not stop now... There's more after the publicity ;)
Upon inheriting a farm from his father, in 1958, moved with his wife and children to the Pantanal. As a farmer, his time for writing was reduced, but the poet did not give up on his books. Thus, in 1969, he won the award from the Cultural Foundation of the Federal District. In 1982, he received the APCA, an award from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics.
In 1990, he won the Jabuti and Jacaré de Prata awards. The Alphonsus de Guimaraens prize was received by the poet in 1996, for the work The Book of Ignorance. And, the following year, the Nestlé Prize for the work book about nothing. For the work as a whole, received the National Prize for Literature in 1998.
Two years later, he won the Cecília Meireles, Pen Clube do Brasil and Odylo Costa Filho awards. Another Jabuti went to the poet's hands in 2002. Another APCA, in 2005. Another Nestlé Prize in 2006, now for the book cave poems. In 2012, he was awarded the Casa da América Latina prize, in Lisbon. He died on November 13, 2014, in Campo Grande.
See too:Main differences between poetry, poem and prose
Characteristics of the work of Manoel de Barros
The works of Manoel de Barros present these elements:
neologisms;
regionalism;
autobiographical traits;
appreciation of nature;
lyricism;
metalanguage;
historical character;
social questions;
everyday facts;
fragmentation.
But what stands out in your poetry, in addition to countless invented words, and the unusual construction of statements. Hence the poet obtains a great poetic effect, which causes strangeness and fascination, as it is possible to observe in these verses of his work book about nothing: “The father lived at the end of a place” or “My grandfather supplied the abandonment”.
Main works of Manoel de Barros
Poems conceived without sin (1937)
still face (1942)
Poetry (1956)
Compendium for the use of birds (1960)
Expository grammar from the floor (1966)
poetry matter (1974)
arrangements for whistling (1980)
pre-stuff book (1985)
The Keeper of the Waters (1989)
Open air concert for bird solos (1993)
The Book of Ignorance (1993)
book about nothing (1996)
Portrait of the artist when thing (1998)
photo essays (2000)
Childhood Exercises (2000)
The Dawn Maker (2001)
General treatise on the magnitudes of the lowest (2001)
waters (2001)
To find the blue I use birds (2003)
Songs for a little bird (2003)
cave poems (2004)
Invented Memories I (2005)
Invented Memories II (2006)
Invented Memories III (2007)
bush boy (2010)
Written in ave verbal (2011)
Doors of Pedro Viana (2013)
Know more: Five love poems by the writer Vinicius de Moraes
Poems by Manoel de Barros
Let's read a excerpt from the work book about nothing:
Things had a poetic disutility for us.
At the back of the yard, ours was very rich.
desaknow.
We invented a trick to make toys
with words.
The trick was just to be silly.
How to say: I hung a I saw you in the sun...
What Bugrinha said: Inside our house
an invented river passed.
What our grandfather said: The grasshopper's eye is without
Principles.
Mano Preto asked: Did they make the hummingbird
decreased just for him to fly still?
The distances added us to less.
The father championed championed.
Mom made candles.
My brother used to sing frogs.
Bugrinha hit the frog's body with a stick and he
turned to stone.
Did you make it count?
She was added of completed herons.
That narrative in verse also has a lyrical character, because creates ambiguity and strangeness, due to the use of words such as “disutility” and “desaber”. And because it brings connotative statements such as: “I hung a I saw you in the sun...”, “Inside our house An invented river passed", "The grasshopper's eye is unprincipled" and "The distances added people to any less".
From the same book is the fragment below, which brings poetic constructions such as: “there was no personal entity, only things”, “unplayed us”, “Only the obscure sparkles us” and “boquiaabriuse”:
At the table the doctor perorated: You are the ones who are happy
because they dwell in this Empyrean.
My father spat the empyrean beside.
The doctor spoke conspicuous nonsense.
Mano Preto took advantage: Cricket is a useless being
for silence.
Mano Preto had no personal entity, only thing.
(Was it a defect of God?)
We talked silly jokes, but the doctor
he spoke of the truth.
The father teased us:
Only the dark sparkles for us.
Bugrinha gaped.
Quotes by Manoel de Barros
Next, let's read some phrases by Manoel de Barros, taken from his work The Book of Ignorance:
“Unlearning eight hours a day teaches the principles.”
“Next to a sparrow the day sleeps first.”
“If the child changes the function of a verb, he becomes delusional.”
“A sunflower appropriated God: it was in Van Gogh.”
“Today I draw the smell of trees.”
“Things no longer want to be seen by reasonable people.”
image credits
[1]Flavio Andre / MTur Destinos / Wikimedia Commons
[2] Companhia das Letras (reproduction)
Sources
BARROS, Manuel de. book about nothing. Rio de Janeiro: Alfaguara, 2016.
CLAYS. The Book of Ignorance. Rio de Janeiro: Alfaguara, 2016.
DUARTE JUNIOR, Valdecir. The (dis) space in the poetry of Manoel de Barros. 2016. 123 f. Dissertation (Master in Geography) – Federal University of Grande Dourados, Dourados, 2016.
MANOEL DE BARROS FOUNDATION. The poet: chronology. Available in: https://www.fmb.org.br/o-poeta.
MORAES, Camilla. Manoel de Barros, poet of wonder and discovery, dies. the country, São Paulo, 13 Nov. 2014.
SILVA, Fernanda Martins da. History and Literature: interpretations of the poetry of Manoel de Barros. Collections of Our Time, Rondonopolis, v. 7, no. 7, p. 51-66, 2008.
By Warley Souza
Literature Teacher
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