Cecilia Meireles: The Brazilian Poet Who Sang India

cecilia_madras_courier
In 1953, a Brazilian poet stepped onto India for the first time and instantly felt at home. Her poems tell the tale.
In 1938, while India geared up for a freedom and possibly world war, a Brazilian poet on the other side of the world had vivid dreams of a land she has never seen.

Cecilia Meireles is among the great poets of Latin America. Her poems knew few boundaries, inspired as they were by the sea, flowing seamlessly from nation to nation. And as she explored the sea as a theme, she developed an innate fascination with India.

In 1953, Cecilia made her fascination a reality. She was the first Brazilian writer to spend a considerable amount of time travelling across India, writing impressionistic poems about life here. It was no coincidence that India affected her so, for she had a lifelong fascination with living poetic and spiritual traditions of India.

(In India) poetry is not futile versification; it’s an inner illumination, a sort of holiness and prophetism. The word of the poet is not a personal ability, a dilettante exercise- it’s instead an example, a revelation, a teaching through sounds and rhythms…How fortunate am I to be able to breathe in a country where one still thinks in those terms! What a hope in life! What a renewal of faith in humanity.



To continue reading, please subscribe to the Madras Courier.

Subscribe Now

Or Login


 

Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.
Please send in your feed back and comments to editor@madrascourier.com