CLÁSSICOS BRASILEIROS BRAZILIAN CLASSICS - Imprensa Oficial

Brazilian Classics
A selection of authors with works in public domain
30
AUTA DE SOUZA
(1876 – 1901)
A poetess of national prominence, Auta
de Souza published all her poetry in one
single book, Horto. These poems, considered
Romantic with Symbolist traces, were taken
from a carefully kept manuscript, Dhalias. Auta
passed away prematurely at the age of 24, after
having lost her parents and brother, after having
suffered from chronic lovesickness and fought
against tuberculosis during almost one decade.
These events, according to some critics, can be
perceived in her deeply emotional poetry. With
very little formal education, a self-taught Auta
was part of many literary circles and wrote for
papers from various parts of the country, such as
the Gazetinha from Recife, and Rio de Janeiro’s
O Paiz.
Review
Main works
Horto (1900).
Excerpt
Today
Another year today… I want to see
If this suffering that torments me so
Lets me not remember peace, enchantment
The sweet light of my long gone life.
Such a maiden, and martyr! I know not dawn,
Life escapes me with the flowing of tears,
As well as the note of a weeping song
Taken by the all swallowing night.
My soul flies to dreams of a past,
In constant search of a beloved nest
Where I would land full of joy.
But, suddenly, in deathly fear
Fate’s hand halts her flight…
My venture lasted only a lonely day.
The swansong of our sadness
“The Auta de Souza that we know was like a novena perfume brought along with a breath of lyric familiarity. Girl and
maiden, escorted from her house to school, she dissolved herself into verses. She planted a jasmine tree and left a book
of nostalgia which is the songbook of all our sadness.”
(Edgar Barbosa, "A vida breve que foi canção")
The poetry`s love
She wrote verses for the love of poetry in its own sake, a touching love, extremely pure, of poetry, and not something to
showboat or convey a message. She made verses for herself and for those closest to her. (…) And this feeling of absolute
purity is what enchants us the most in her poetry.”
(Alceu Amoroso Lima, preface to [à 3ª edição de Horto])