A few words about 20th century Portuguese poetry

Modern Portuguese poetic history begins with the publication of the journal Orpheu in 1915, which championed a turn from insular, nationalistic romanticism to internationalism and the contemporary zeitgeists of futurism, cubism, and the like. The three great poets represented by the journal were Mario de Sa-Carniero, Jose de Almada Negreiros, and -- the greatest of all -- Fernando Pessoa. These three blew the lid off Portuguese literature and culture, functioning sort of like T. S. Eliot, Jack Kerouac, and Andre Breton all rolled up in one.

Pessoa was the dominant influence in Portuguese poetry for generations and remains a figure to be reckoned with still. In a gesture which prefigured many of 20th century literature's preoccupations -- identity, existentialism, self-consciousness, etc. -- he divided his poetic self into four distinct poets, each with his own biography and style. (You can learn a little about each of them here.) It's impossible to overemphasize his importance to Portuguese literary history. The Portuguese feel about him like the English do about Shakespeare.

Poetry International has pages for Adília Lopes, José Tolentino Mendonça, and Rui Pires Cabral, each of whom is represented in our anthology.

And here is a somehow charming YouTube video of still photographs of Fernando Pessoa and his extended family