Poetry newslog July 2004

January 18, 2006 July 9, 2004
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, 1903-2004
{id="4657" title="Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen"}, a great and much beloved poet, died on July 2nd, 2004, in Lisbon, writes our Portuguese editor. She was 84 years old. Born in Oporto in 1919, she came to Portugal’s capital as a young woman to study at the university. She did not finish her course, but she soon became a vital part of the city’s literary life, and in 1944 she published her first book of poems. Fifteeen more books of poetry would follow, all of them remarkable for the way in which her verses named the things of the world as if for the first time. Sophia (she was rarely called by more than this single name) was a vehement critic of the Salazar regime and continued to speak out after the 1974 Revolution. Winner of various major prizes for poetry, she also wrote short stories and literature for children. Her poetry and stories have been widely translated, and her children’s book have gone through many editions. Her funeral, held on July 4th, was attended by Portugal’s current president, Jorge Sampaio, by past president Mário Soares, by many other leading politicians, by major and minor writers, actors, artists, journalists, and by dozens of people who never met Sophia but cherished her poetry.