It is very significant that the first one who translate Half of life on

Brasil was Manuel Bandeira. This poem is very connected to his

work and it is published on Estrela da vida inteira.
In Half of life the idea of a round poem appears, like Bessie
described Heidelberg. We want to read it again and again and that
makes the poem sound a little different each time although it is still
the same.
But I think these two poems make no concessions to extremes
although both lead us to the limit through contrasts. I think Holdelin
achieves this through prosody by this round and no sharp sound and
rhythm. Contrasts with no real edge (aresta).
When I found what I wrote before I realize it was not enough to
understand the connection I made between Bandeira and Hlderlin.
And it is probably a silly idea to associate the simplicity in
Bandeiras poetry with all those styles Hlderlin wants to achieve,
but perhaps it could be seen as a synthetic way to get to the
audience just like Hlderlin intended.
At the same time, I was trying to remember poems on which I could
see this influence and all that come to my mind was those famous
ironic or mocking poems. Anyway there is a gesture towards life that
is really something on Bandeira poetry maybe there it is what they
have in common. He frequently says about something lacking on
life, something absent, but he can still see on daily life the beauty
presence of flags on the wind as on Momento num caf. So this
similarity can be thematic more than prosodic. I fear that do really
say something about Hlderlings prosody and compare to any other
I should learn german.
Bandeira spend long time in hospitals dealing with the tuberculosis.
During this time he translated many European authors an
elaborated some of his poems trying to be different of those
romantic poets who talked about how life was melancholic and so
on. He had a life drive and plays a lot with his own illness so the
biographic issue is blurred. But it is interesting that this time could
be also seen as a time he learned and trained a repertoire he uses
on his metalinguistic texts. I would say the translations helped him
to do that in the sense that poetry translation is a useful exercise
(and also a way to critique) to deal with the complexity of choices,
including prosody, syntax and so forth.
It is weird because I did not pay attention to these before. Actually I
did not pay much attention to Manuel Bandeira who was always
considered a minor poet although always present on school
textbooks.
As we were talking about reception last class maybe I can tell you
what I found about Hlderlin in Brasil.
Nowadays, one of the most dedicated readers of Hlderlin poetry is
Antonio Cicero. Sometimes he posts a translation of a poem or a
commentary on his blog.

We have some books with selected poems such as the one

translated by Jos Paulo Paes and published by Cia das Letras and
also some isolated poems published in reviews etc.
The bilingual version available (the one I was thinking to buy when
we started the seminar) was published in Portugal and translated by
Paulo Quintela and we can find it in some old books stores.
It is funny because I found Half of life translated by Manuel
Bandeira and Bread and wine translated by Jos Paulo Paes (who
is a poet and a translator which I admire a lot) but I could not find
the first group of poems we were reading in Portuguese.
Translation in Brasil is not a systematic work and probably Paes,
Bandeira or any other just translated what they like and whenever
had an opportunity they had it published. Is has never been a
project lets now have the complete work of. We often find the
commentaries about someones work translated but not the
workpiece itself, just like we have the translation of Adorno and
Heidegger essays on Hlderlin. (Maybe that is an heritage of Claude
Lvi Strauss and his gang on USP.)