Poet Manoel de Barros dies aged 97

Known for his peculiar use of everyday language, which he called “the olde Manoelish idiolect”, and for drawing inspiration from the most down-to-earth subject matters, Barros claimed he could summarize the story of his life in a few sentences: “I was born in Cuiabá, in December 1916, and was raised in the marshes of Corumbá. I was nothing but a burden and a source of anguish to my parents. I lived as a beggar and a pariah everywhere in Bolivia and Peru. I've lived in the most squalid places because I take pleasure in acting like lizards and stones. So far, I've published ten books. I don't believe in any of them. I've been in search of myself my whole life, to no avail—which is why I've been saved. I'm a farmer and a cattleman. My inheritance is the reason why I didn't end in the gutter. I like reading and listening to music, especially Brahms. I can be classified along with those who suffer from morale, because poetry is all I do,” he wrote.

Barros drafted his first poems at the age of 13. His first book, Poemas (“Poems”), was published in 1937, when he was 21. Political parties hardly appealed to him at all, but for a while he was a member of the Brazilian Communist Party. From the 1950's onwards, he dedicated his life to literature and the farm his parents bequeathed him.

A perfectionist, Barros won a number of literary awards, like the Jabuti Prize, in 1989 and 2002. In 2000, he was given the Brazilian Academy of Letters Award, for his Exercício de Ser Criança (“The Exercize of Being a Child”)

In a condolence note, the Ministry of Culture states, “A simple man, whose poetry was delicate and filled with his own marshlander's imagination, Manoel de Barros will never be forgotten, despite the message in these lines.” The statement quotes from his work: “When the world leaves my eyes. / When my eyes, pierced by beauty, is forgotten by the world. / What shall I do?”

Marcos Henrique, director of the Manoel de Barros Foundation, wrote on Twitter that, in spite of the sadness, the entire staff at the institution will keep honoring him and working to make his oeuvre known. “Manoel de Barros, the man, was finite, like all of us, but the poet and his works, which were born out of his smile, simplicity, love and creativity, will linger on forever, generation after generation.”

Barros's way of talking about poetry usually made people laugh. “Whenever I wish to say something, I do nothing; but if I don't wish to say anything, I make poetry.” His poems are often referred to as insightful and humorous. After he was hospitalized, two of his lines have been repeatedly quoted by the media: “To arrive, I don't need the end,” and “From the place where I am I've already departed,” both from his Livro Sobre Nada (“Book on Nothing”), published in 1996.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira