Carlos Drummond de Andrade: Google Doodle celebrates Brazilian poet and writer’s 117th birthday

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s 117th Birthday, a person whom many consider one of the greatest poets in modern Brazilian literature.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade was a Brazilian poet and writer, considered by some as the best Brazilian poet of all time. He has become something of a national cultural symbol in Brazil, where his widely influential poem “Canção Amiga” (“Friendly Song”) has been highlighted on the 50-cruzado novo bill.

“What now, José?” asked Brazilian writer Carlos Drummond de Andrade in a prominent poem from his 1942 anthology, Poesias.

Born in the mining village of Itabira in the southeastern region of Brazil on this day in 1902, Carlos Drummond de Andrade composed poems that broke formal guidelines in verse and communicated the worries of modern life. He additionally worked as a literary critic and journalist, composing short semi-fictional newspaper essays, known as crônicas, about the lives of ordinary individuals, including kids and poor people.

After co-founding the literary journal A Revista in 1925, Carlos Drummond de Andrade went through years on his poetry collection Alguma Poesia, developing as a leading figure in Brazilian modernism. Having earned his degree in pharmacy, he proceeded to work for Brazil’s Ministry of Education as well as the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil.

All through his career, he published over twelve volumes of poetry and a handful of collections of crônicas. His 1986 collection Traveling in the Family: Selected Poems incorporates English interpretations by prominent poets Elizabeth Bishop and Mark Strand.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade has gotten numerous awards—including the Brazilian Union of Writers Prize—and has become a fixture of Brazilian popular culture. His “Canção Amiga” (“Friendly Song”) was printed on Brazilian currency, and a statue of the poet stands close to the ocean in Rio de Janeiro.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade is a favorite of American poets, various whom, including Mark Strand and Lloyd Schwartz, have deciphered his work. Later writers and pundits have at times acknowledged his relationship for Elizabeth Bishop, his first English language interpreter, as compelling for his American reception, yet however, she appreciated him Bishop claimed she scarcely even knew him.

In an interview with George Starbuck in 1977, she stated, “I didn’t know him at all. He’s supposed to be very shy. I’m supposed to be very shy. We’ve met once — on the sidewalk at night. We had just come out of the same restaurant, and he kissed my hand politely when we were introduced.”