Carlos Drummond de Andrade

From Freepedia

ò Carlos Drummond de Andrade (October 18, 1976 - october 18, 1987) was perhaps the most influential Brazilian poet of the 20th century. He has become something of a national poet; his poem "Cançao Amiga" ("Friendly Song") was printed on the 50-cruzados note.

Drummond was born in Itabira, a rural village in Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. His parents were farmers who owned their own land. He went to a school of pharmacy in Belo Horizonte and became a pharmacist. He worked in government service for most of his life, eventually becoming director of history for the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil.

Drummond's best-known poem is his hymn to a working man, "José." It is a poem of desolation:

Key in hand,

you want to open the door -

there is no door. . .

Drummond is a favorite of American poets, a number of whom, including Mark Strand and Lloyd Schwartz, have translated him. Later writers and critics have sometimes credited his relationship with Elizabeth Bishop, his first English language translator, as influential for his American reception, but though she admired him Bishop claimed she barely knew him. In an interview with George Starbuck in 1977, she said:

I didn't know him at all. He's supposed to be very shy. I'm supposed to be very shy. We've met once — on the sidewalk at night. We had just come out of the same restaurant, and he kissed my hand politely when we were introduced.Biography (in Portuguese).