cantáteis - cantos elegíacos de amozade

 

released as book by editora garamond in brazil and by edicions positivas in spain.

also released as audiobook by livro falante.

 

 

"I wrote cantáteis in 1993. not in one breath as it would have been more heroic. but by diving many times into the words and into the subject. I wrote it by hand on a writing pad, in sao paulo - walking on the street, in the bus, on the underground, in a cab. I was a stranger at the place and in time, so I wrote these lines when I was discovering the city, especially the zona oeste neighbourhood.

I wrote cantáteis inspired by the existence and consistence of huge poems like os cantos by erza pound, morte e vida severina by joao cabral de melo neto, altazor by vicente huidobro. or even o guesa by souzândrade and la divina comedia by dante alighieri. I know that just the fact these master pieces exist and weight heavily on the balance of universal literature should have kept me silent for good. but the contrary happened. I comitted cantáteis. Today I lay the blame on the lack of reason which attacks the people in love. which was how I felt. and still feel."

cantáteis is a poem consisting of 144 strophes dedicated to a muse (tata fernandes) for whom chico felt this hybrid emotion between love and friendship (amozade). it was written to conquer her, but ended up being as well a hymn to this special kind of women of sao paulo - urban, intellectual, battle-tested, independent - to whom chico feels attracted until today.

first stophe:

seu poeta preferido

bem antes de ser ferido

já era ferido antes

nao visitou as bacantes

as nereidas e as ninfas

quis beber de sua linfa

esperou e nao morreu

esse poeta sou eu

de lira desgovernada

deliro musa amada

órfao bisneto de orfeu