An Epic Poem turned into Farce...
A Lisbon theatrical company ("Companhia do Chapitô") which obviously betrays its roots in the Circus (and the children-friendly language of clowns) offered us yesterday, at the Casa de America, a counter-culture version of Camões's biography: "Talvez Camões".("Probably Camoens")
A womanizer and a gambler, a drunk and a brave soldier, a man who globe-trottered the Empire (Morocco, Coastal Africa, India, China) and saved his manuscripts from drowning , Camões was a kind of XVI century Hemingway.
I've always found interesting that our two World Heritage-league poets (Camões and Fernando Pessoa) are each so much the epitome of totally distinct writers' personae. While Pessoa is the insignificant bookworm (like Cavafy) with the talent of a genius but total lack of physical charisma; Camões, with super-human literary talent too, was a charismatic extrovert who didn't shy from the real world (more like Marlowe but with a different sexual orientation).
I hope my children will find some time to read out loud his Sonnets, the climax of love poetry in the Portuguese language.
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