José Gomes Ferreira
Encyclopedia
José Gomes Ferreira, GOSE, GOL
(July 9, 1900 – 1985) was a Portuguese
poet and fiction writer with a vast work of varied influences. Gomes Ferreira was also a political activist that participated in the resistance against the dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar, becoming later a member of the Portuguese Communist Party
. In the late 1970s he occupied the presidency of the Portuguese Writers Association.
A native of Porto
, Ferreira graduated in law in 1924 and became a consul in Norway in the late 1920s. Soon after, became a journalist and published his works on several progressive magazines. After the rising of the right-wing dictatorship led by Salazar, Ferreira acquainted himself with the democratic resistance movements. During the later years of the regime, he continued publishing and saw his poetic work recognized by his peers. After the democratic Carnation Revolution
, Ferreira joined the Communist Party and continued his work until the mid 1980s.
His artistic work was representative of his concern with social problems, a mirror of his leftwing ideology. His poetry had varied influences, ranging from neorealism
to surrealism
, in a dialectic
relation between his own ego and the need to share other people suffering.
, in the north of Portugal, in 1900. When he was four years old his parents moved and settled in Lisbon
. Ferreira made his early studies in the Camões High School, and soon started reading Portuguese literature, mainly Raul Brandão
.
After some time he became the director of a magazine titled Ressurreição (Resurrection), where he collaborated with one of the major names of the Portuguese literature, Fernando Pessoa
.
Influenced by his father, a republican, Ferreira developed strong political ideas, and after completing the military service, he joined the Republican Academic Battalion, a republican organization created by university students in order to protect the young Portuguese Republic
against monarchism.
He graduated in law in 1924. Soon after he became the Portuguese consul
in Kristiansund
, Norway
. After the military coup of 1926
, he returned and started working as a journalist
, collaborating in several magazines, such as Presença, Seara Nova, Descobrimento, Imagem (a cinema magazine), Kino and others. He also became a translator, subtitling several films under the pseudonym
of Álvaro Gomes.
José Gomes Ferreira’s first book of poems, Lírios do Monte, was published in 1918, a work he would later classify as a childhood experience. In 1948 he published his first serious work, Poesia I. Fifteen years later his book Aventuras Maravilhosas de João Sem Medo would also confirm his credits among the younger readers, overwhelmed by a fable that arouses imagination and creativity.
He was born in a family with strong connections to music and started his musical studies when he was eight years old. He took part as a pianist and a mandolinist in the chamber group Quarteto Beethoven led by Manfredo Peixoto, for which he composed several waltz
es, fado
s and variations
. His better known piece was however the symphonic poem
Idílio Rústico, first performed in 1918 by the Politeama Theatre Symphonic Orchestra under the direction of David de Sousa.
Due to his strong political positioning, Gomes Ferreira developed several contacts with the democratic resistance against the fascist regime of Salazar. He joined several democratic movements, including the communist influenced Movement of Democratic Unity
. At the time, he worked along with other anti-fascist writers in composing several revolutionary songs, in a project coordinated by Fernando Lopes Graça. After publishing several works, both fiction and poetry, he was awarded the prestigious Big Prize of Poetry by the Portuguese Writers Society in 1961.
In the democratic revolution of 1974
, Gomes Ferreira continued publishing and developing his work and in 1978 he was elected president of the Portuguese Writers Association. During the next year he made part of the electoral lists of the United People Alliance, a coalition of the Portuguese Communist Party
with the Portuguese Democratic Movement
. In that year, 1979, he officially joined the Communist Party. In 1981 he was awarded the Military Order of Sant'Iago de Espada by the President of the Republic
, Ramalho Eanes.
In 1983 Gomes Ferreira submitted to surgery and would die two years later.
Order of Liberty
The Order of Liberty, or Freedom, is a Portuguese honorific civil order that distinguishes relevant services to the cause of democracy and freedom, in the defense of the values of civilization and human dignification...
(July 9, 1900 – 1985) was a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
poet and fiction writer with a vast work of varied influences. Gomes Ferreira was also a political activist that participated in the resistance against the dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar, becoming later a member of the Portuguese Communist Party
Portuguese Communist Party
The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist....
. In the late 1970s he occupied the presidency of the Portuguese Writers Association.
A native of Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
, Ferreira graduated in law in 1924 and became a consul in Norway in the late 1920s. Soon after, became a journalist and published his works on several progressive magazines. After the rising of the right-wing dictatorship led by Salazar, Ferreira acquainted himself with the democratic resistance movements. During the later years of the regime, he continued publishing and saw his poetic work recognized by his peers. After the democratic Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
, Ferreira joined the Communist Party and continued his work until the mid 1980s.
His artistic work was representative of his concern with social problems, a mirror of his leftwing ideology. His poetry had varied influences, ranging from neorealism
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
to surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, in a dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
relation between his own ego and the need to share other people suffering.
Biography
José Gomes Ferreira was born in PortoPorto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
, in the north of Portugal, in 1900. When he was four years old his parents moved and settled in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Ferreira made his early studies in the Camões High School, and soon started reading Portuguese literature, mainly Raul Brandão
Raul Brandão
Raul Germano Brandão was a Portuguese writer, journalist and military officer, notable for the realism of his literary descriptions and by the lyricism of his speech. Brandão was born in Foz do Douro, a parish of Porto, where he spent the majority of his youth...
.
After some time he became the director of a magazine titled Ressurreição (Resurrection), where he collaborated with one of the major names of the Portuguese literature, Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa, born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa , was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.-Early years in Durban:On 13 July...
.
Influenced by his father, a republican, Ferreira developed strong political ideas, and after completing the military service, he joined the Republican Academic Battalion, a republican organization created by university students in order to protect the young Portuguese Republic
5 October 1910 revolution
The revolution of 1910 was a republican coup d'état that occurred in Portugal on 5 October 1910, which deposed King Manuel II and established the Portuguese First Republic....
against monarchism.
He graduated in law in 1924. Soon after he became the Portuguese consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
in Kristiansund
Kristiansund
Kristiansund is a city and municipality on the western coast of Norway, in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. It was officially awarded township status in 1742, and it is still the major town for the region. The administrative center of the municipality is the city of Kristiansund...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. After the military coup of 1926
28th May 1926 coup d'état
The 28 May 1926 coup d'état, sometimes called 28 May Revolution or, during the period of Estado Novo , National Revolution , was a military action that put an end to the unstable Portuguese First Republic and initiated the Ditadura Nacional , later, renamed the Estado Novo, an authoritarian...
, he returned and started working as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, collaborating in several magazines, such as Presença, Seara Nova, Descobrimento, Imagem (a cinema magazine), Kino and others. He also became a translator, subtitling several films under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Álvaro Gomes.
José Gomes Ferreira’s first book of poems, Lírios do Monte, was published in 1918, a work he would later classify as a childhood experience. In 1948 he published his first serious work, Poesia I. Fifteen years later his book Aventuras Maravilhosas de João Sem Medo would also confirm his credits among the younger readers, overwhelmed by a fable that arouses imagination and creativity.
He was born in a family with strong connections to music and started his musical studies when he was eight years old. He took part as a pianist and a mandolinist in the chamber group Quarteto Beethoven led by Manfredo Peixoto, for which he composed several waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es, fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
s and variations
Variation (music)
In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...
. His better known piece was however the symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
Idílio Rústico, first performed in 1918 by the Politeama Theatre Symphonic Orchestra under the direction of David de Sousa.
Due to his strong political positioning, Gomes Ferreira developed several contacts with the democratic resistance against the fascist regime of Salazar. He joined several democratic movements, including the communist influenced Movement of Democratic Unity
Movement of Democratic Unity
The Movement of Democratic Unity was a quasi-legal platform of Portuguese democratic organizations that opposed the dictatorial regime of António Oliveira Salazar and was founded in October 1945....
. At the time, he worked along with other anti-fascist writers in composing several revolutionary songs, in a project coordinated by Fernando Lopes Graça. After publishing several works, both fiction and poetry, he was awarded the prestigious Big Prize of Poetry by the Portuguese Writers Society in 1961.
In the democratic revolution of 1974
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
, Gomes Ferreira continued publishing and developing his work and in 1978 he was elected president of the Portuguese Writers Association. During the next year he made part of the electoral lists of the United People Alliance, a coalition of the Portuguese Communist Party
Portuguese Communist Party
The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist....
with the Portuguese Democratic Movement
Portuguese Democratic Movement
The Portuguese Democratic Movement / Democratic Electoral Commissions was one of the most important organizations of the democratic opposition to the Portuguese fascist regime...
. In that year, 1979, he officially joined the Communist Party. In 1981 he was awarded the Military Order of Sant'Iago de Espada by the President of the Republic
President of Portugal
Portugal has been a republic since 1910, and since that time the head of state has been the president, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic ....
, Ramalho Eanes.
In 1983 Gomes Ferreira submitted to surgery and would die two years later.
Poetry
- 1918 - Lírios do Monte
- 1921 - Longe
- 1946 - Marchas, Danças e Canções (collaboration)
- 1948 - Poesia I
- 1948 - Homenagem Poética a Gomes Leal (collaboration)
- 1950 - Líricas (collaboration)
- 1950 - Poesia II
- 1956 - Eléctico
- 1962 - Poesia III
- 1970 - Poesia IV
- 1973 - Poesia V
- 1978 - Poeta Militante I, II e III
Fiction
- 1960 - O Mundo Desabitado
- 1960 - O Mundo dos Outros - histórias e vagabundagens
- 1962 - Os segredos de Lisboa"
- 1963 - Aventuras Maravilhosas de João Sem Medo
- 1971 - O Irreal Quotidiano - histórias e invenções
- 1975 - Gaveta de Nuvens - tarefas e tentames literários
- 1976 - O sabor das Trevas - Romance-alegoria
- 1978 - Coleccionador de Absurdos
- 1978 - Caprichos Teatrais
- 1980 - O Enigma da Árvore Enamorada - Divertimento em forma de Novela quase Policial
Memories
- 1965 - A Memória das Palavras - ou o gosto de falar de mim
- 1966 - Imitação dos Dias - Diário Inventado
- 1980 - Relatório de Sombras - ou a Memória das Palavras II
- 1990 - Dias Comuns I: Passos Efémeros
- 1998 - Dias Comuns II: A Idade do Malogro
- 2000 - Dias Comuns III: Ponte Inquieta
Translations
- ???? - La casa de Bernarda Alba by Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
- 1926 - The Book of One Thousand and One NightsThe Book of One Thousand and One NightsOne Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age...