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COPYRIGHT 2003 Modern Humanities Research Association
Non sono mai stato
tanto attacato alla vita Ungaretti, 'Veglia'
If, in Brejo das Almas (1934), faced with the polarization of the intelligentsia in the 1930s, (1) we still find Carlos Drummond de Andrade imprisoned in the 'atoleiro da indecisao', much of the uneasiness of that position being depicted at several points in the book, the following six years appear to have been decisive as far as the question of ideological choices was concerned, the reason being that, with the publication of Sentimento do Mundo in 1940, we know that he would come to be hailed as our greatest public poet, placed by his friend Carpeaux in the illustrious company of modern English poets, as represented by W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis and Stephen Spender. (2)
Certainly in 1936 Drummond was already showing signs of a more clearly defined ideological stance, on the occasion of the well-known episode where he refused to attend the anti-communist address by the Catholic leader Alceu Amoroso Lima at the Ministry of Education. In a letter to Capanema, in which he put his headship of the cabinet on the line, Drummond justified his refusal in the following terms:
Verdade, ainda, que nao tenho posicao C esquerda, senao apenas sinto por ela uma viva inclinacao intelectual, de par com o sentimento de desencanto que me inspira o espet[sz]culo do meu Pais. Isso nao impede, porem, antes justifica que eu me considere absolutamente fora da direita e alheio aos seus interesses, crencas e definices. E ai est[sz] a razao porque me julguei impossibilitado de ouvir o meu amigo pessoal Alceu. Nao tenho jamais escondido o que fica dito ai atr[sz]s, eu me vexaria de ocult[sz]-lo agora que o art. 113 da Constituicao e letra morta. Ora, a minha presenca na conferencia de hoje seria, talvez, mais que silenciar inclinaces e sentimentos. Seria, de algum modo, o repodio desses sentimentos e dessas inclinaces. Por isso nao fui ao Instituto. (3)
However much he denied that this was a positive choice, the fact is that his viva inclinacao towards the Left was already sufficient for him to take a firm stand not only against the anti-communism of Lima, but also in the face of the Vargas government's authoritarianism and repressive measures, such as those which followed the Communist uprising of November 1935.
Four years later, that ardent inclination was to become once and for all a clear politico-ideological decision, leading Drummond, if not definitively to overcome the extreme individualism that he had displayed since his first book was published, then at least to reconcile it in some way with the demand for a participatory stance, even if at the expense of a vehemently reiterated and merciless self-criticism. (4)
It is very true that the idea of de-cision, if taken in the strongest sense of the term (from the Latin decisione, 'to break', 'to cut ties', 'to separate'), was always going to become somewhat problematic with regard to Drummond. Not that this undermines the merit of his work; on the contrary, its strength and permanence appear to derive from this. At a time when a good number of writers on the Left, regardless of their actual social origins, aspired to be spokesmen for the working class, thus cultivating a naive realism, and were averse to all and any formal experimentation (in the supposed certainty that literary communication would become more far-reaching), Drummond was to follow the opposite path, which would be far more consequential and unequivocal. He opened up the limits of lyric verse writing which, by definition, tended to repudiate the choral mode of expression so as to attain the domain of the epic--a mode in which, however, he never felt completely comfortable--making of his participatory verse a moment of intense and growing experimentation, which would reach its greatest potential in the richness of the forms, measures and rhythms of A Rosa do Povo (1945). (5)
Drummond made of his own social distance the very measure of his commitment, completely avoiding the 'derrapagem ideologica', to which many of those on the left fell victim. (6) What Walter Benjamin had effectively demonstrated some years before with regard to the 'politizacao da inteligencia europeia', is a fact that did not escape the critical gaze of Drummond. According to Benjamin, 'a esquerda radical [...] jamais abolira o fato de que mesmo a proletarizacao do intelectual quase nunca fara dele um proletario', because of his privileged access to culture which,
O torna solid[sz]rio com ela e, mais ainda, a torna solid[sz]ria com ele. Essa solidariedade pode ser apagada na superficie, ou ate dissolvida; mas quase sempre ela permanece suficientemente forte para excluir de vez o intelectual do estado de prontidao constante e da existencia do verdadeiro proletariado. (7)
The awareness of that social distance would never cease to orientate Drummond's commitment to solidarity, as can clearly be seen in 'O operario no Mar' among other poems from Sentimento do Mundo--the first book written 'no contexto mais vasto e mais complexo do Rio'. (8)
The unity on which this book rests, despite its thematic diversity, has already been defined by John Gledson through the central concept of alienation which, taken in its broadest sense, designates 'a sensacao insistente que tem o poeta de estar separado de coisas as quais esta, na verdade, ou deveria estar ligado'. He recognizes that alienation
Sempre esteve presente em Drummond, mas e em Sentimento do Mundo que ela comparece de forma clara, consciente e diversificada, seja como indiferenca politica, em 'Os inocentes do Leblon' e 'Privilegio do mar'; seja como divisao de classes, em 'O oper[sz]rio no mar', 'Revelacao do suborbio' e 'Morro da Babilfnia'; seja ainda como alienacao temporal, em 'Os mortos de sobrecasaca' e 'Confidencia do itabirano'. (9)
The recognition of alienation as a central category in Sentimento do Mundo is a crucial contribution by Gledson and must be a given in any new approach to the work. It is present in the title of the collection, which was inspired by Ungaretti, where 'feeling' appears perhaps less to indicate an affective disposition than something intuited or 'pre-felt', but not comprehended; something, in short, about which one does not have a totally clear consciousness. (10)
It is however in the homonymous poem at the beginning of the book that this feeling and the general condition of alienation are best depicted, so as to give precision, at the very outset, to the position and dominant impression of the lyrical subject in its confrontation with the space of the big city. The whole poem appears to be constructed around the idea of awakening, which is not explicitly thematized, but is reinforced in the metaphor of dawn and in that moment when the lyrical 'I' rises to its feet. The awakening is obviously suggestive of the still diffuse moment--as in the transition between sleep and wakefulness--when that 'I' becomes aware of the new social reality with which it is confronted. As usual, that awakening is experienced as something late and, because of this, with a healthy degree of remorse, it leads to a request for forgiveness. That request, furthermore, represents the first retratacao, meaning both 'portrayal' and 'retraction' of social guilt (and, as Mequior says, the feeling of the world is also a feeling of guilt), which would intensify, with increasing violence, in the books that followed. (11)
Thus, added to the general sense of alienation prevailing in the reality it encounters, is the alienation of the lyrical 'I' itself, represented by its limitations, the lateness of its decisions and actions, and its total unpreparedness for the struggle, to the point of not even knowing of the existence of a war and, therefore, not having available the basic means with which to face it--something that in the end appears to compromise irremediably his zeal for solidarity. (12)
The condition of dispersal, of one who feels himself to be 'anterior as fronteiras', is described in Sentimento do Mundo (p. 56) and appears to establish, not by chance, its historico-social justification in the poem that immediately follows, 'Confidencia do Itabirano', where...
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