Eugénio de Andrade

Eugénio de Andrade (pseudonym of José Fontinhas, 1923 –2005), has long been one the most revered in Portuguese poetry. Born in Póvoa de Atalaia, Concelho do Fundão, Beira Baixa, in 1923, he moved to Lisbon as a child and attended the Lyceum Passos Manuel and the Escola Técnica Machado de Castro, where he began to write poetry. He published his first book, Narciso, in 1939, the only book published under his real name.

He did military service in Coimbra in 1943-4, and later took a position with the Ministry of Health, a position he kept for 35 years. In later life he traveled extensively, but despite growing national and international prestige he always lived apart, justifying his rare public appearances with “this weakness of the heart called friendship”.

He has received most every Portuguese literary award, including the Prize of the Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (1986), Prize D. Dinis from Casa de Mateus Foundation (1988), the Great Poetry Prize of the Portuguese Association of Writers (1989) and the Camões Prize (2001).

He died in Porto in 2005 after prolonged neurological disease.

Books of Poetry

• Narciso (1939)
• Adolescente (1942)
• As Mãos e os Frutos (1948)
• Os amantes Sem Dinheiro (1950)
• As Palavras Interditas (1951)
• Escrita da Terra (1974)
• Matéria Solar (1980)
• Rente ao Dizer (1992)
• Ofício da Paciência (1994)
• O Sal da Língua (1995)
• Os Lugares do Lume (1998)
• Prose includes Os afluentes do Silêncio (1968), Rosto Precário (1979) and À Sombra da Memória (1993), children’s stories História da Égua Branca (1977) and Aquela Nuvem e as Outras (1986).

English Translations by Alexis Levitin

• Inhabited Heart: The Select Poems of Eugénio de Andrade: Perivale Press, 1985.
• Memory of Another River: New Rivers Press, 1988.
• The Slopes of a Gaze: Apalachee Press, 1992.
• Dark Domain: Guernica, 2000.
• Forbidden Words: Selected poetry of Eugenio de Andrade: New Directions, 2003.
• Furrows of Thirst: Diálogos, 2022.