Poetry
Marília de Dirceu
Not translated into English
Tomás Antônio Gonzaga · 1792
Opening lines
Eu, Marilia, não sou algum vaqueiro,
Que viva de guardar alheio gado,
De tosco trato, de expressões grosseiro,
Dos frios gelos, e dos sóes queimado.
I, Marília, am no cowherd
Who lives by tending another's cattle,
Coarse in manner, rough in speech,
Burnt by cold frosts and by suns.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Under the name of Dirceu, a conventional shepherd, the poet sings of Marília: her beauty, the nature around her, the peaceful life he promises her. The lyres of the second part are those of a man in prison, arrested for plotting against the Crown; those of the third, more melancholic, speak of saudade and exile in Africa. Behind Marília, readers have recognised the young fiancée whom the poet was to marry in Vila Rica.
Context
The book appeared in three parts, the first in Lisbon in 1792, then in 1799 and in 1812; the second was written in prison. In all it brings together eighty lyres and thirteen sonnets, according to Toda Matéria. Britannica reports that in Portugal the poet's popularity gave way, until the twentieth century, only to that of Camões. A French translation by Eugène de Monglave and Pierre Chalas appeared in Paris in 1825, under the title Marilie, chants élégiaques. Gonzaga's remains lie in the Museu da Inconfidência, in Ouro Preto.
Who it is for
A collection of short lyres, in eighteenth-century Portuguese; each part can be read on its own, and their order follows the poet's life.
Prizes and reception
The book that established its author's reputation, for a long time one of the most widely read in Portuguese-language poetry.
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