Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Portuguese pronunciation:[ˈkaʁluzdɾuˈmõdʒiɐ̃ˈdɾadʒi]) (October 31, 1902 – August 17, 1987)[1] was a Brazilian poet and writer, considered by some as the greatest Brazilian poet of all time.[2][3]
He has become something of a national cultural symbol in Brazil, where his widely influential poem "Canção Amiga" ("Friendly Song") has been featured on the 50-cruzado novo bill.
Drummond was born inItabira, a mining village inMinas Gerais in the southeastern region of Brazil. His parents were farmers belonging to old Brazilian families of mainly Portuguese origin.[4][5] He went to a school ofpharmacy inBelo Horizonte, but never worked as a pharmacist after graduation. He worked as a civil servant for most of his life, eventually becoming director of the history for the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil.
Drummond drifted towards communism at the start ofWorld War II and took up the editorship of theBrazilian Communist Party's official newspaper,Tribuna Popular, but later abandoned the post due to disagreements over censorship, which Drummond staunchly opposed.[6]
Manuel Bandeira and Carlos Drummond de Andrade, 1954.National Archives of BrazilStatue of Carlos Drummond de Andrade by Copacabana Beach
Drummond's work has been translated by American poets includingMark Strand andLloyd Schwartz. Later writers and critics have sometimes credited his relationship withElizabeth Bishop, his firstEnglish language translator, as influential for his American reception, but though she admired him, Bishop claimed she barely even knew him. In an interview withGeorge Starbuck in 1977, she said, "I didn't know him at all. He's supposed to be very shy. I'm supposed to be very shy. We've met once — on the sidewalk at night. We had just come out of the same restaurant, and he kissed my hand politely when we were introduced."[7]
Drummond adopted the new forms of Brazilian modernism that were evolving in the 1920s, inspired by the work ofMário de Andrade andOswald de Andrade, making use of free verse, and not depending on a fixed meter.[citation needed]
Drummond was the first poet to assert himself after the premiere modernist of Brazil and created a unique style dominated by his writing. In 1994,Alfredo Bosi said that "The work of Drummond reaches – asFernando Pessoa,Jorge de Lima,Murilo Mendes, andHerberto Helder – a coefficient of loneliness that detached from the soil of history, leading the reader to an attitude-free of references, trademarks or ideological or prospective".[8][citation needed]
In the late 1980s, his poetry began to become more erotic.O Amor Natural (Natural Love), a collection of erotic poems, was published posthumously. The book inspired the 1996 Dutch documentary filmO Amor Natural.
