By ADELTO GONÇALVES*
Commentary on Raquel Naveira's recently released book
1.
If poetry is the transfiguration of feeling, as defined by the Italian philosopher, historian and critic Benedetto Croce (1866-1952), a good example of this is Point de escape & others poems, by the poet from Mato Grosso do Sul Raquel Naveira, a collection of poems originally published in ten of her books, which also brings together unpublished pieces, the so-called “vegetable” poems, which, in fact, were already present in previous works, such as “Junco”, by Home de Key (Escrituras, 1998), in which she says: “I am a reed / Thin and flexible / on the edge of the marsh”.
Regarding Benedetto Croce’s reflection, it is worth remembering that all the criteria he formulated to define the word transfiguration are present in Raquel Naveira’s verses, that is, creative fantasy, intuition, feeling, intelligence and others. In short, it is a poetry imbued with dreamlike language that the author achieves when trying to express her feelings through poems. As an example, read this one entitled “Sanga Puitã”, which is part of the book Never-Te-Vi (Estação Liberdade, 1991), in which the poet seeks to recover her origins and experiences close to Guarani communities:
“This name, Sanga Puitã / Reminds us of blood, / Pitanga, / Red carnation, / Lips that can be chewed / Like the pulp of a fruit. / This name, Sanga Puitã, / Reminds us of the exuberant Paraguayan / In her dark skin, / In her lace-like flights, / Green bottles / Balanced on her sweet smile. / This name, Sanga Puitã, / Reminds us of hot guarânias / That speak of gifts of love, / Clear lakes, / Black-haired Indians, / War fighters. / Sanga Putiã… / Is it a Guarani expression? / Does it mean something like a bee, / Morning sun, / Nhanduti embroidery? / That is today’s mystery…”
Here we can see his intention to give the poem an unquestionably Guarani rhythm, while at the same time seeking to interpret the pains and pleasures of that people. It also constitutes a tribute to that indigenous people: sanga puita comes from guarani zanza pyta, that is, red stream, which is also the name of a Paraguayan municipality. In fact, Sangha Puita names a district of the Brazilian municipality of Ponta Porã, which borders Zanza Pyta, which is on the Paraguayan side.
2.
Owner of an enviable curriculum and vast published work, the poet makes incursions that show the dimension of her political gesture, as observed by the poet, fiction writer and editor Anelito de Oliveira, post-doctorate in Literary Theory from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), in the preface he wrote for this work, when he highlights “mysticism, eroticism, memory, desire, lyricism, communion and otherness” as common issues in the author’s poetic work. This can be seen in the poem “Damsels D´Avignon”, inspired by a painting by the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), one of the greatest masters of XNUMXth century art:
“They are prostitutes / These bridesmaids / Exposed / In the brothel of life; / In their malformed, / Fierce, / There are indecent proposals / And in their open legs / An invitation / To the labyrinth, / To the fight with ghosts. / They remain there on the screen: / Still, / Placid, / Paralyzing, / They stick to us / Attracting / Until complete servitude. / (…) These prostitutes, / Damsels, / They suck darkness, / Mud, / Brute force / Into their breasts / Which offer themselves like fruits / And from their black bellies / Of hidden entrails. / A bull of despotic energy, / Reveled over these bodies, / With astonishment and terror; / Then, unsatisfied, / Between desire and pain, / Innovated the erotic impulse / Of these demoiselles, / Of these prostitutes / Supreme and lean”.
3.
Among the unpublished poems are poems that form two separate books and which bear the titles the soul de Ipe e Photos de Saturn. The first is a tribute by the author to her hometown, Campo Grande, in Mato Grosso do Sul, also known as the “City of Ipês”. According to her, the inspiration came from her observation of the paintings of ipês by the artist from Mato Grosso do Sul, Isaac de Oliveira (1950-2019). And from her passion for vegetables, a feeling, in fact, that was already present in the poems of Home de Key. In the unpublished works, this feeling combined with strong eroticism is evident in the poem “Noiva”:
“I married a white ipê tree, / Its roots took hold of my sex, / Its branches / Spread across my breasts, / Formed garlands / Around my neck / and a veil over my shoulders. / I passively entered / A sea of milk / And lavender. / The night was moonlit, / Of mist / And icing.”
Yes, Photos de Saturn brings together, in addition to “vegetable” poems, other poetic pieces that stand out for their tenderness, as seen in “Lua III”: “From the moon, suddenly, / Naked and white women can descend / In a phosphorescent light, / In a dust of salt; / The ocean will have convulsions, / High tides / And will cover our heads / With a veil of foam”.
Point de Escape & Others poems is part of the Infame Ruído collection by Inmensa Editorial, which is primarily aimed at training readers of poetry by authors located on the fringes of major economic and cultural centers in public schools. The title of the collection is an appropriation of a verse by the Arcadian poet Cláudio Manoel da Costa (1729-1789), a literary colleague of the poet Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (1744-1810), both participants in the Minas Gerais Conspiracy of 1789.
4.
Raquel Naveira (1957), born in Campo Grande, is a university professor, writer, essayist, poet and literary critic. She graduated in Law from the Dom Bosco Catholic University in Campo Grande in 1976 and holds a master's degree in Communication and Literature from the Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo (2001). She graduated in French Language and Literature from the University of Nancy in France in 1981 and in Literature from the Dom Bosco Catholic University in 1994, where she taught Brazilian, Latin and Portuguese Literature for 19 years.
He lived in Rio de Janeiro, where he taught at Santa Úrsula University and, in São Bernardo do Campo-SP, at Anchieta College.
She is the author of four dozen books of poetry, chronicles, essays and novels, including: Abbey, poems (Imago Publisher, 1996), and Home de Key, poems, work nominated for the Jabuti Poetry Prize, by the Brazilian Book Chamber. He wrote the children's book Skin de Jambo (1996) and the essays Spinner (1992)
Published the romance novels War between brothers (1993), poems inspired by the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), and Caraguata (1996), inspired by the Contestado War (1912-1916), an armed conflict between the states of Santa Catarina and Paraná, based on a fight between squatters and small landowners for possession of a territory, a book that inspired the short film Covering the sky de Shade, monologue with actress Christiane Tricerri.
She is the author of: With Sacred (1989); Pig iron Luminous (1990); Never-Te-Vi (1991); Under os Cedros do Sir (1994); Song of Mysteries (1994); Woman Samaritan (1996); Maria Madalena (1996); O Arado e a Star (1997); Ruth e a Mother in law Noemi (1997); Intimacies Transvistas (1997); and Lady (1999), which received the Jorge de Lima-Brazil 500 years award, granted by the Academia Carioca de Letras and the Brazilian Writers Union (UBE), in Rio de Janeiro, in 2000.
Also published: Stella Maia e Others poems (2001); woodcuts (2001); Maria Egyptian (2002); Home e Castle (2002); Weaver de Frames - essay about interdisciplinarity (2005); Gate de Iron (2006); Literature e Drugs - e others essay (2007); guto e os Pets (2012); Blood Portuguese (2012); Álbuns de Lusitania (2012); and Garden Closed - an anthology poetics (2016), a book commemorating his 30-year literary career, among others.
In 2002, he released the CD Spinners do Pantanal, in which she recites her poems, accompanied by craviola and the voice of singer Tetê Espíndola.
In recent times, it has launched Fan Open (2020) Romance writer de Head de Cow: o wanderer Taj Americas (2020) and manaca (2021), chronicles in which he mixes tradition and modernity in poetic prose. In 2022, he published No World Charmed de Luciana, children and youth and, in 2023, World Guarani - fragments de an soul da border, a work of memoir that is somewhere between a chronicle, a novel and a romance, and won the João do Rio Prize from the UBE in Rio de Janeiro. This narrative brings to light the universe of the border between Brazil and Paraguay, in which he recovers his experiences with the indigenous heritage that is still extremely strong in the city of Bela Vista, on the border with Paraguay, on the banks of the Apa River.
*Adelto Gonçalves, journalist, has a doctorate in Portuguese literature from the University of São Paulo (USP). Author, among other books, of Bocage – the lost profile (Imesp)
Reference
Rachel Navarra. Vanishing point & others poems. Selection: Claudio Daniel. New York, New York Times, 2024, 132 pages.
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