David Mourão-Ferreira

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History of Portuguese Literature	Origins of Portuguese Literature	The Portuguese Language	Oral Literature	Fiction	Lyricism
Travel Literature	Cantigas de amigo	Historiography	Doctrinal Prose	Theatre

David Mourão-Ferreira
(1927-1996)

A teacher at the Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, he left behind an important body of work in the field of literary criticism and theory (Hospital das Letras, 1966, Lâmpadas no Escuro, 1979), showing a remarkable mastery of the art of short-story writing (Os Amantes e Outros Contos, 1968) and also writing a novel that enjoyed considerable success (Um Amor Feliz, 1986).

But it was in the field of poetry that his talent was to develop most notably, not only as a result of his incomparable compositional expertise (A Secreta Viagem, 1950), but also allying the experience of feeling (of time, love, writing, the city, the countryside) to the virtuosity of his poetical expressiveness, in such works as Os Ramos os Remos, 1985, or Música de Cama, 1994.

«Shadow»

Before being we were a shadow
After having been     what remains for us
It is from afar that life guides us
It is from nearby that death presses in on us

                                    Os Ramos os Remos

How many hands     How many fingers
so that in silk the walls
will cede

                     Entre a Sombra e o Corpo, 1980




© Instituto Camões, 2001