Klaus Hart Brasilientexte

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis died 100 years ago. Joáo Guimaráes Rosa was born 100 years ago. Both brought an esthetical dimension to the feminine enigma: Joaquim™s Capitu and Joáo™s Diadorim. Both died at home and alone in Rio de Janeiro “ Joaquim, a widower, in Cosme Velho and Joáo in Copacabana on November 19 1967, while his wife was at mass.

A self taught Carioca[1] <#_ftn1> and founder of the Brazilian Literary Academy, Joaquim left a work of inexhaustible polysemy. His style revealed lightness of pen thanks to his newspaper chronicles. His texts seem, at first sight, within reach of every reader. However they require great perception in order to be understood with their profusion of symbols, subterfuges, reading between the lines and apparent redundancies

Born in Cordisburgo, Minas Gerais “ ”city of the heart – polyglot, medical doctor and diplomat, Joáo re-invented the Portuguese language, brazilianized it, strengthened it, imploded the rules of conventional narrative and made an epic out of the ”sertáo (Brazil™s hinterland).
 Â
Joáo observed the world through the tall grass; Joaquim did so through an upstairs window. The former is rural, the latter is urban. Joáo dives into the depths of the clear waters of the great rivers to fish for humanity™s metaphysical interrogations. Joaquim is an intimist, a realist, he finds in the ballrooms, in a banal conversation, the raw material which allows him to uncover the soul™s hidden secrets.

Joáo looks at the world from below, from the social position of the anonymous, he steps on cow dung to describe the infinite. Joaquim is almost a dandy, appears wearing gloves and a top hat and, little by little, tears fantasy away, perforating the skin, exposing the heart and entrails.
Â
Joáo is an apocalyptic theologian, Joaquim is an irreverent philosopher. Joáo is wonder, Joaquim is irony. He lifts his quill pen and penetrates the complexities of our undisputed foolishness; Joáo raises his scythe and straightens and opens pathways in unexpected directions.

Joaquim is Cartesian; he exploits doubts, suspense, ambiguity and contradictions. Joáo is baroque; he twists grammar, subverts syntax, pulls vocabulary from its organized profile and throws it into the dance of the spirit.

Joaquim transforms his writing into a delicate piece of lace which seen from afar looks like an impeccable table cloth whose beauty comes from its intricate embroidery, appreciated only by shrewd readers.

Joáo prefers to mend shattered bits and pieces strewn on the ground of life and reveal the stained glass of so many sagas and adventures. His talent is unreachable, for he has isolated himself in a semantic, singular universe or better yet, has deleted language from the blackboard and in the labyrinths of syntax has reconstructed a cloth which letter by letter, word for word is radically local, magnificently universal.
Â
We find impeccable dominion of the language, captivating style and precise rhythm in both of them. Both are inimitable. Joaquim invites us to a game filled with surprises, Joáo to a journey through the mysterious ”sertáo which we each carry within ourselves.
Â
There are many literary celebrations this year. 400 years ago Padre Vieira was born (6th February 1608). He taught us to revere the Portuguese language. 120 years ago was the birth of Fernando Pessoa (13th June 1888) for whom ”the poet is a phony/ he pretends so completely/ that he pretends the pain he really feels/ is real pain. 60 years ago Monteiro Lobato left us, he who enchanted my childhood and taught me to love books.
  Â
Antonio Candido, the greatest literary critic alive today, author of the classic Parceiros do Rio Bonito (The Rio Bonito Partners), is celebrating his 90th birthday. 90 years ago Olavo Bilac passed on, he who invites us to listen to the stars. Manuel Bandeira died 40 years ago, he who induced us to surf poetically: ”The wave moves/ where does / the wave move? / The wave/ still moves / where? / where? / the wave/ the wave[2] <#_ftn2> .

[1] <#_ftnref1>  Carioca “ a native of Rio de Janeiro

[2] <#_ftnref2>  Difficult to translate as it is a play on words:

”A onda anda / aonde anda / a onda? / a onda ainda / ainda onda /  ainda anda / aonde? / aonde? / a onda / a onda.

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of ”Alfabetto “ Autobiografia Escolar (Alphabetto, School Autobiography) (Ática).

About the Author

He is a Brazilian Dominican with an international reputation as a liberation theologian.
Within Brazil he is equally famous as a writer, with over 52 books to his name.  In 1985 he won Brazil™s most important literary prize, the Jabuti, and was elected Intellectual of the Year by the members of the Brazilian Writers™ Union.

Frei Betto has always been active in Brazilian social movements, and has been an adviser to the Church™s ministry to workers in Sáo Paulo™s industrial belt, to the Church base communities, and to the Landless Rural Workers™ Movement (MST).

In 2003-2004, he was Special Adviser to President Lula and Coordinator of Social Mobilisation for the Brazilian Government™s Zero Hunger programme.