|
Sérgio Mattos
Translated
by Maria Luisa Nunes
Austin – Texas – 1979
Preface
By Maria Luisa Nunes (University
of Pittsburgh, Penn., USA)
Most critics of Brazilian literature
in the United States are aware of those Brazilian
writers who are adopted by literary circles in the
rather limited area between Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo. This is not to say such writers are without
merit or that historically, the Northeastern writers
such as Jorge de Lima, João Cabral de Melo Neto,
José Lins do Rêgo, Jorge Amado, and many others
have note received their due recognition. It is
almost by accident, however, that a North American
critic gains access to the poetry of one of the
younger Bahian poets such as Sérgio Mattos, author
of "O Vigia do Tempo".
This book of poems focuses on
the contrasts between the traditional and modern,
the lyrical and the pragmatic, the political and
the whimsical. Humor and seriousness, and the personal
and God. The poet views his creativity and his anxiety
to achieve self-expression as a challenge. This
invocation to his verse initiates a series of meditations
on the writing of poetry, which include the poet’s
self-doubt as well as the pride he takes in his
verses. Linked to his desire to sing his poems to
the world is a contrasting humility expressed in
the impulse to bury them or throw them into the
sea.
Mattos’ imagery has the simplicity
of stark modern forms with certain religious and
lyrical overtones. He fully and beautifully explores
the poetic qualities of children about the purity
of water and the incorruptibility of nature as seen
in the rain cycle. His poems about children and
nature are of a sparkling freshness.
In contrast to these pure subjects,
Mattos expresses ironic comments on the state of
things, compassion for the poor, and the idealism
of fraternal love. His most specific object of political
concern is related to artistic freedom and can be
placed in the context of the present system of government
in his native Brazil. I refer to the censorship
that has often been a part of this regime.
Mattos’ major preoccupation,
however, would seem to be the rapid modernization
of the world at the expense of some priceless traditional
values. Thus he contrasts the wooden horses of our
childhood with television. He juxtaposes technology
to man’s perennial problems of poverty and the unfathomable
mystery of life and death. Pollution in the guise
of modernity is destructive but the poet does not
lose his sense of humorous irony in contrasting
man’s religious past and modern life.
Mattos is a poet who is concerned
with issues but is not engagé in any domestic or
ideological sense. He cares about peace within the
framework of traditional Christian values. On the
other hand, modern man in the poet’s view fears
nothing, not even God. Man’s nature is dual, angelic
and demonic and most of the time, he seems to be
in a quandary about his true identity.
Apart from the pleasure achieved
from the reading of Sérgio Mattos’ poetry, it is
most instructive for the foreign critic of Brazilian
literature to have contact with the younger Brazilian
writers. Through such meetings, the student of Brazilian
literature and culture learns a great deal about
the attitudes, values, hopes, and aspirations of
the inheritors of Brazil that has undergone many
transitions in the twentieth century and promises,
as it has in the past, a great future. This critic
shares some of the poet’s concern about the modern
erosion of traditional values and hopes that Brazil
will never lose its love for and appreciation of
literature.
Pittsburgh, 1979.
|
