"My dear friend Cora Coralina: Your 'Vintém de Cobre' is, for me, a gold coin, and a gold that does not suffer market fluctuations. It is one of the most direct and communicative poetry I have ever read and loved. What a wealth of human experience, what special sensitivity and what lyricism identified with the sources of life! Aninha doesn't belong to us today. It is a heritage of all of us, who were born in Brazil and love poetry (...)."
(Fragment of correspondence between Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Cora Coralina)
When she had her first book published by the respected Editora José Olympio, Cora Coraline she sent some copies to renowned writers of Brazilian literature, including Carlos Drummond de Andrade. It was then that Aninha, as she affectionately called herself in her poems, went from being the sweetseller who wrote poems to being considered an important literary voice. Drummond was essential for the poetry of Cora Coralina to be disseminated and thus achieve national recognition.
Cora Coraline is actually a pseudonym of Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto Bretas. Born in the city of Goiás on August 20, 1889, Cora only became known to the general public at the age of seventy, although she had been writing since she was a girl. At sixteen, a chronicle by her was published by the newspaper Tribuna Espírita, from Rio de Janeiro, and since then, the writer has cultivated, throughout her life, the link with literature, although this was not her priority. She got married and had six children, lived in several cities in the interior of São Paulo and, already a widow, returned to her hometown.
In the house on the Red River bridge, Cora Coralina lived the last years of her life. It was there that he was able to devote himself to literature and become one of the greatest symbols of the city, which today is a World Heritage Site. After her death in 1985, the house, a centuries-old family heritage, became a kind of museum, which tells the story of the writer and keeps precious items, such as the correspondence exchanged with her friend. Carlos Drummond de Andrade. So that you can learn a little more about the simplicity of the verses by Cora Coralina, Brasil Escola chose five poems that will show you all the grandeur of the simple things that reside in Cora's poetics. Good reading!
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
LIFE WOMAN
Life woman,
My sister.
Of all time.
Of all peoples.
From all latitudes.
It comes from the immemorial background of ages
and carry the heavy load
of the most vile synonyms,
nicknames and nicknames:
local woman,
street woman,
lost woman,
Woman for nothing.
Life woman,
My sister.
NESTS AND ITS STONES
Don't let yourself be destroyed...
assembling new stones
and building new poems.
Recreate your life, always, always.
Remove stones and plant roses and make sweets. Restart.
make your life mean
a poem.
And you will live in the hearts of young people
and in the memory of generations to come.
This fountain is for the use of all thirsty ones.
Take your share.
come to these pages
and do not hinder its use
to those who are thirsty.
masked
The sower went out to sow
sowed all day
and the night caught him still
with hands full of seeds.
he sowed calmly
without thinking about the harvest
because a lot had been harvested
what others sowed.
Young man, be you that sower
sow with optimism
sows with idealism
the living seeds
of Peace and Justice.
so i see life
Life has two faces:
positive and negative
the past was hard
but left his legacy
Knowing how to live is the great wisdom
that i can dignify
My condition as a woman,
accept your limitations
And make me safety stone
of values that are crumbling.
I was born in rough times
I accepted contradictions
fights and stones
as life lessons
and I use them
I learned to live.
Aninha's Considerations
better than the creature,
made the creator the creation.
The creature is limited.
time, space,
norms and customs.
Hits and misses.
Creation is unlimited.
Exceeds time and means.
It projects itself in the Cosmos.
*The image that illustrates the article was taken from the writer's book covers published by Global Editora.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PEREZ, Luana Castro Alves. "Poetry of Cora Coralina"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/literatura/poesia-cora-coralina.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
