Article
Critics on the work of António Franco Alexandre
January 18, 2006
"This poetry is written from the point of view of a clear thinking phenomenology of the imprecise, that, strangely enough, plays a game with the almost palpable quality of words. The great paradox is that its worlds are built from what is known, but without any certainty (“Despede-te da mesquinha certeza” [“Say goodbye to petty certainty”]). The poem is a field crossed by an all-consuming energy, incorporating everything into such chaos that it is up to the reader to sort things out, all in “small sizes”, because only detail is “poetically inhabitable”. Far from being “mostly unreadable”, as some critic said, this poetry is truly, like the author says, an expression of a relativistic “as if...” searching for “the way to say the true false things”, of something in motion “calculating imprecise routes”."
"[...] one of the best surprises I ever had I owe to António Franco Alexandre, with his Moradas 1&2 (1987), reaching the highest point of previously registered virtuosity, made him make sense, or a reference, from a negative point of view [...]. Instead of senses or perceptions, this is an experience of pre-senses or pre-perceptions, of clues; also, instead of a clearly audible voice, breath that is merely hinted at, in an as yet inarticulate mouth: “a pequena tosse do outro / lado das palavras” [“a small cough on the other/ side of words”]. And yet, as in Pessoa, but on a different level, there is something under such modest reference: cyclic evidences connected to the earth, to the seasons, to water, seeds of disguised and incoercible continuity, through the watery or windy flow of specific voyages [...], and, above all, an inter-personal meeting or something else that is harder to describe than that. [...]
When I started to read Pessoa, about fifty years ago, I thought it was the limit of non-poetic metaphysics. Pessoa’s poetry is, clearly, but subtly, metaphysical: all-denying, saying nothing, at most it insinuates through clear antiphrasis to its own universal negativity. António Franco Alexandre’slatest book, probably the best poetry book of the decade, takes me to another, a deeper, degree of negative radicality, because it is not based on being, but on saying, on the logic of communicating. [...] I believe this is one of the recent books from which, poetry-wise, one can learn most." “Alguns nexos diacrónicos na poesia novecentista portuguesa”. In A Phala – um século de poesia. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 1988.
"I stumbled across an old book by publishers Assírio e Alvim. It is a book by a poet named António Franco Alexandre. I don’t know who he is, I have never seen him, I had never read his work and from my point of view, after so many years fighting words (which gives me some insider experience), I have no doubts when I say this writer is a class act.
For many reasons, by the security in his hand, his thoroughness, the strength of his sentences, the parsimony of feelings, the lulling music. Reading something by a talented author gives me the same goose-bumps I get from watching Leotard do a trapeze stunt. There is always a time when the artist (if indeed he is an artist) must let go of one trapeze and grab the other one. The endless seconds that stunt takes fill me with distress because we don’t know if he is going to pull it off, if he will fail, if he will hit the net or the ground. Most people just swing back and forth on the same, safe trapeze they know. They do it without elegance or courage, with a trembling smile on their fearful lips. António Franco Alexandre is one of the few who have the talent and the strength to fly and who know how to fly and do not ever fall. I don’t know what people say about him because I don’t know or care what is said about anyone, but I know what I say: it is a beautiful book by a wonderful poet and do yourselves the favour of buying it."António Lobo Antunes
“Crónica”. Pública, 26 January 1997"This poetry is written from the point of view of a clear thinking phenomenology of the imprecise, that, strangely enough, plays a game with the almost palpable quality of words. The great paradox is that its worlds are built from what is known, but without any certainty (“Despede-te da mesquinha certeza” [“Say goodbye to petty certainty”]). The poem is a field crossed by an all-consuming energy, incorporating everything into such chaos that it is up to the reader to sort things out, all in “small sizes”, because only detail is “poetically inhabitable”. Far from being “mostly unreadable”, as some critic said, this poetry is truly, like the author says, an expression of a relativistic “as if...” searching for “the way to say the true false things”, of something in motion “calculating imprecise routes”."
João Barrento
Nelken und Imortallen - Portugiesiche Literatur der Gegenwart. Berlin: Tranvía, 1999"[...] one of the best surprises I ever had I owe to António Franco Alexandre, with his Moradas 1&2 (1987), reaching the highest point of previously registered virtuosity, made him make sense, or a reference, from a negative point of view [...]. Instead of senses or perceptions, this is an experience of pre-senses or pre-perceptions, of clues; also, instead of a clearly audible voice, breath that is merely hinted at, in an as yet inarticulate mouth: “a pequena tosse do outro / lado das palavras” [“a small cough on the other/ side of words”]. And yet, as in Pessoa, but on a different level, there is something under such modest reference: cyclic evidences connected to the earth, to the seasons, to water, seeds of disguised and incoercible continuity, through the watery or windy flow of specific voyages [...], and, above all, an inter-personal meeting or something else that is harder to describe than that. [...]
When I started to read Pessoa, about fifty years ago, I thought it was the limit of non-poetic metaphysics. Pessoa’s poetry is, clearly, but subtly, metaphysical: all-denying, saying nothing, at most it insinuates through clear antiphrasis to its own universal negativity. António Franco Alexandre’slatest book, probably the best poetry book of the decade, takes me to another, a deeper, degree of negative radicality, because it is not based on being, but on saying, on the logic of communicating. [...] I believe this is one of the recent books from which, poetry-wise, one can learn most." “Alguns nexos diacrónicos na poesia novecentista portuguesa”. In A Phala – um século de poesia. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 1988.
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