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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 | ||
Camilo Pessanha
(1867-1926)
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In
his poetry, he brought together various strands from symbolism and modernism,
through his passion for unattainable ideas and the suggestion of indefinable
atmospheres, expressed with careful musicality, on the one hand, whilst, on the
other hand, he stressed the materiality of writing as an end in itself,
fragmenting discourse and communication through the use of different levels that
were interspersed at intervals and contained only a partial objective reference.
In
Clepsidra (1920), these processes serve to introduce the theme of
the flow of time that absorbs identity, making use of the symbology of the
landscape and water as a nominal means of establishing change and exorcising
melancholy.
Autumn is already gone, it’s turning cold now...
- Autumn with its sad smile.
Algid Winter! The sun is oblique, frozen...
- The sun, and the clear waters of the river.
Clear
waters of the river! Waters of the river,
Fleeing under my tired gaze,
Whither are you taking me my vain care?
Where are you going to, my empty heart?
© Instituto Camões, 2001
