WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: Voices From a Tomb

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

In this episode of The Poetry Fix, we explore the darkly mysterious "Voices From a Tomb," by Augusto dos Anjos.

I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time. Today we're reading Voices from a Tomb by Augusto de Zanges. Augusto de Zenzhoues, one of the fathers of the modernist literary movement in Brazil, is considered one of the nation's darkest poets. Voices from a tomb uses on one of those Ange's favorite themes, the horror of death and decay. As the poem is in Portuguese, we'll read the original, followed by a translation. The original poem is a Petrarchan sonnet.

The problem that the octave sets up is the poet's anguish over the finite nature of life. The Cestet doesn't provide a solution so much has turned to a different problem, the way death crushes man's pride, reducing him to nothingness. On the surface, this poem looks like it's about nothing more than death and death. misery. But Augusto de Zanges does something very strange in the first stanza by alluding to the myth of Tantalus. Tantalus received eternal punishment from the gods for murdering his own son and attempting to feed him to the divine pantheon at a feast. The poet compares the earth itself to Tantalus, as the earth is considered our common mother, yet is responsible for the death

of all men. It's an appropriately dark simile for the subject matter, but the myth, doesn't end in death. After the punishment of Tantalus, the gods restore Palops, his son, to life. If the narrator likens himself to Palops through the simile, then his eventual resurrection is implicitly understood. It's a crucial part of the myth. Beyond that, although Tantalus enjoyed great stature among mortals, there were higher beings than him, the gods. This would imply that the earth, that nature itself is not the end of all things. Yet we never get the impression in this poem that there is any sort of hope for the afterlife. In fact, those angels himself, torn as he was between spirituality and materialism, was not a religious man. So why the

unresolved allusion to tantalus? The way we choose to interpret it changes the entire crux of the poem. Did he intend to sow the seeds for the hope of a Christian resurrection? And even if he didn't, can we still interpret the poem that way? With all that said, let's dive in. Voices from a tomb. Morrie. And the earth, a man common, the brillio of these my eyes apagou. Asim, tantal lo, to real convivas, in a festing,

servile as carnes of his own little figure. Why, For the cemetery VIN? Because, Before of the Angust, the trillio Pamilas

than this that pamilio and that I'm assomber because not has fin. No ardor of the

Sonio, the Phronem exaltta Construid to Orgulio Ené, a pyramid Alta,

today, but, that's dismoronor the pyramid real of my Urgulio,

today, that only only, I'm only, I'm a material and tullio,

I, dead, and the earth, mother of all things, extinguishes the light from these eyes of mine. So, Tantalus, to the royal guests at the sacred feast, serves the flesh of his own son. How is it that I have come to this cemetery, and why? Before life, the blocked path was what men did, what I now attempt to mend, and what haunts me as it has no end. In the passion of a dream, exalted by the phronym, I built my nine-sided pyramid of pride, which yet today has collapsed.

That true pyramid of my pride, today I, who am matter and ashes alone, become aware that I nothing am. You've been listening to the Poetry Fix with Erica Kaiba. Join me next time to discover another great Brazilian poet. I'm