Herbert died Helder, the poet of poets – publico

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
                         

Herbert Helder died Monday at age 84 in Cascais. The poet, born in 1930 in Funchal, died at home, and causes of death were not disclosed. He was considered by many the greatest Portuguese poet of the second half of the twentieth century. The funeral takes place on Wednesday and will be reserved for the family, according to a statement from Porto Editora.

                     

                         Last year in June, published No Death Master , the seal of Porto Editora – an edition that included a CD with five poems by the author said. In 2013 there was published Easements. Since the publication of The Knife Does not Cut Fire , in 2008, became a case of almost absolute critical consensus. Like the previous books of Herbert Helder, The Death Master No had only one edition, exhausted quickly.

“Herbert Helder was a powerful poet, his work was a center of attraction and a horizon against which all his contemporaries had to be located. As before had happened to Fernando Pessoa, there was also an ‘effect Herbert Helder,’ “says the PUBLIC critical Antonio Guerrero.

Shortly after learning of the death of Herbert Helder news, writer Maria Velho da Costa was visibly moved. “He died the greatest Portuguese poet Luís de Camões after,” said the PUBLIC. “I was with him for some time, but received all his books The last, The Death Master No , “is a long poem, beautiful” and ended with an almost request:.. “If my words had some influence, I proposed a national day of mourning. “

” When a poet dies with the size of Herbert Helder what we feel is not only a poet but died poetry, “said the PUBLIC also the poet José Madeira Tolentino Mendonça, talking about a difficult fight. “In these cases the mourning becomes unbearable and, at the same time, this fight makes us realize that Herbert Helder is immortal with his work. A thousand years from, if there remains a Portuguese-speaking poetry of Herbert Helder stand” .

Among the many poet’s poems began to read in adolescence, Tolentino Mendonça reminds one that begins with the line “I do not know how to tell you that my voice search you.” It is the beginning of a book of the poem Spoon Mouth , 1961.

José Tolentino Mendonça recalls that started very young to read Herbert, and that this reading was this a fact biographical, “the he too had emerged in the insular context, in Madeira Island”. This, he continues, “was a strong bond for a teenager who also began in poetry to seek reasons for life itself. And this discovery was the first trip.”

Stresses insularity as a permanent feature in poetry of Herbert. A insularity that in its meaning “is perhaps plunged many leagues depth than is the word. It is a very explicit dimension, but read Herbert Helder Madeira Island has a resonance and a vitality that does not forget,” he says, emphasizing an aspect that considers striking. “When we heard Herbert Helder speak, even many years after leaving the island, still with the pronunciation of an inhabitant of Funchal. It was a clearly identifiable Funchal. And that was an emotional note of great impact.”

In testimony collected by Lusa agency, the critic and poet Pedro Mexia considers that “the place of Herbert Helder in Portuguese literature equivalent to the Fernando Pessoa in the first half of the twentieth century”, which, he adds, “came the saying there some time and it will become, over time, a peaceful thing, notwithstanding the great poets of his generation who was in Portugal. “

In a note of regret sent to newsrooms, the Secretary of State for Culture Jorge Barreto Xavier, wrote: “. A few were those who during the last hundred years have done so much for the construction of Portuguese and were so influential in the organization of contemporary poetic language” He added: “Its concentration around your craft, ignoring and refusing forms of public space beyond their writing, are one of the signs of its determination on a speech about his work and about his presence. “

In 1994, the Prize was awarded person for his work which, according to the jury, illuminated the Portuguese. Herbert Helder, however, refused to award, one of the most important awarded in Portugal, and asked the jury not announce the winner and give the prize to another.