This World and beyond: Mário de Sá - Carneiro's Struggle for Perfection

Author(s): William W. Megenney

Source: Hispania , May, 1976, Vol. 59, No. 2 (May, 1976), pp. 258-267
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/339501

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 THIS WORLD AND BEYOND: MARIO DE
SA-CARNEIRO'S STRUGGLE FOR PERFECTION
WILLIAM W. MEGENNEY
University of California, Riverside

between the poet and the world, the poet

PORTUGAL has over
standing poets produced many
and out-
the centuries.life,
One and the poet and himself, is
of the most gifted of the twentieth cen-
summed up in Si-Carneiro's poem "Dis-
persdo."
tury was Mario de Sai-Carneiro, who, withTwo metaphors used in this poem,
namely
Fernando Pessoa, represents the apex of the"Castelos desmantelados," and
Modernist movement in Portugal-a move-
"Ledes alados sem juba ..."1 express very
ment which sprang from a generalwell the resultant state of dispersion that
feeling
the
of anguish present during the turn ofpoet
theexperiences because of his deep
century in Europe and in most of the
anguish. This theme, which is so predomi-
world. Other writers who formed part
nant ofoccurs frequently in the three
here,
the Portuguese Modernist current genres used by Sa-Carneiro to record his
and who
emphasized notes of despair, solitude, and
thoughts. Throughout the author's poetry,
anxiety in their poetry includeshort
Ant6nio
stories, and letters to Fernando Pes-
soa, there are allusions to a lack of stabili-
Botto, Jose Regio, Adolfo Casais Monteiro,
and Miguel Torga. This movement zation in time, space and psyche. The poet
in Por-
confesses
tugal is paralleled chronologically and the- that he is torn apart by some
matically in such Spanish poets as mysterious
Antonio force and hurled in many dif-
Machado and Juan Ram6n Jiminez. ferent directions
Es- simultaneously.
sential themes present in their poetry re-
This cleavage in Sa-Carneiro's poetry
volve around sensations of anguishis thepro-
result of his anxiety to comprehend
duced by the uncertain and temporal
entirelyna-
all which is perfect in life, and to
ture of existence and the search for Beauty
be able, in turn, to create this perfection
which is, supposedly, the font of all truth.
through literature.
There are also thematic links between
In SA-Carneiro's poem "Dispersio," a
Portuguese Modernism and the movement feeling of complete disorientation in life
in Spanish America as exemplified in the
is very evident:
works of such poets as Julian del Casal, Perdi-me dentro de mim
Manuel Gutierrez Nijera, and Jose Asun- Porque eu era labirinto,
ci6n Silva. These themes also emphasize
E hoje, quando me siato,
the same anguish and despair that was E com saudades de mim.
present during this time in history. These Passei pela minha vida
are the thematic elements, then, which we Um astro doido a sonhar.
Na Ansia de ultrapassar,
will attempt to study in this article as we
Nem dei pela minha vida ...
assess Mairio de Sa-Carneiro's role in the
Para mim 6 sempre ontem,
Portuguese Modernist Movement. Ndo tenho amanha nem hoje:
Critics agree that the ultimate preoccu- O tempo que aos outros foge
pation in the poetry of Mairio de Sai-Car- Cai sobre mim feito ontem. (p. 61)
neiro was a struggle to discover some mean- Sa-Carneiro exists within an ambiguous
ing in life and to put his thoughts to- juggling of time which he cannot define as
gether in a coherent mental balance. Dis-being past, present, or future. He is un-
able to move forward in a natural progres-
persdio or dispersion, breakup, was the key-
note of the poet's literary production.sionA of time sequences and therefore feels
trapped inside something which he can
complete state of dispersion or separation

258

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 MARIO DE SA,-CARNEIRO'S STRUGGLE FOR PERFECTION 259
only call "past" or "yesterday." This incar- object pronoun where it ordinarily is not
ceration within one particular time period found in Portuguese suggests that the poet
naturally creates the invention of a method wants to project himself beyond what he
for escape into another world or dimension is: "Mas logo me triunfo" (p. 51). Upon
in time and space. The method is manifest saying this, Sai-Carneiro expresses the fact
in a confession in which Sa-Carneiro re- that he can escape and go beyond reality
fers to himself as a "crazy star, dreaming into a dream world. He can change him-
his life away" while, all the time, he was self by altering his artistic creation:
losing contact with the world of reality. It Porque eu reajo. A vida, a natureza,
is imperative for him to escape, however, Que sdo para o artista? Coisa alguma.
even though he is fully aware at this stage O que devemos C saltar na bruma,
Correr no azul A busca da beleza.
of his writing (from 1913 to 1916) that he
("Partida," p. 52)
has been dreaming and that this form of
flight has been the reason for his inability It would appear that Sa-Carneiro is
to create his own perfect work of art. merely attempting to find Rubxn Dario's
The necessity for escape is obvious since blue happiness of never-never land where
the bulk of Sa-Carneiro's poetry and prose he could enjoy the rare sensations of a
is concerned with ways of living in theParnassian ars gratia artis. However, these
verses, placed in the context of the whole
unclear realms of otherworldliness. Joao
poem and then in that of the poet's com-
Gaspar Simies, in his introduction to vol-
plete works, indicate that Sa-Carneiro goes
ume II of the Obras completas de Mdrio de
farther than such a Baudelairian search for
Sd-Carneiro, states that "a obra de Sai-Car-
neiro 6 uma tentativa de fuga por inadap- sensuous correspondences. The twentieth
century Portuguese artist wants to become
taCqo" (p. 24). This is precisely why Sai-
Carneiro adapted so well to the Portuguese powerful enough to achieve the ultimate
Modernist movement, the tonalities ofcreation. This causes him to have delusions
of grandeur. Psychologically trapped in the
which were strikingly similar to those of the
romantics, the symbolists, and the Spanishpast, he envisions himself in a quasi-Pla-
tonic philosophy of having existed as God
American Modernists. Si-Carneiro, through
before he was born: "Vem-me saudades de
Portuguese Modernism, could live in his
own imagination and attempt to experienceter sido Deus .. ." ("Partida," p. 54).
the world which his own conscience Farther along in Dispersdo, Sa-Carneiro
wished to create. reiterates the idea of leaving this world
and going into another. In this journey, he
Sai-Carneiro's inadaptability to reality
made him fit perfectly into the literary refers several times to beleza, and obviously
currents of his -day. He was, however, un- wants to attain it in some way. One meth-
able to come to terms with himself. As od of reaching it might be to induce beleza
to dream about the poet. SA-Carneiro sug-
Joao Gaspar Simbes writes, "pode dizer-se
que no caso de Sai-Carneiro existe apenasgests that this happens as a step toward
objecto-falta o sujeito" (p. 27). In otherachieving the realization of his desires to
words, his anxiety to create the perfectescape: "-P'ra que me sonha a beleza"
work of art was constantly frustrated be- ("Vontade de Dormir," p. 60). But what
cause of the mental dispersion which heis beleza and what would S~a-Carneiro gain
suffered. from being dreamed by it? Beleza is per-
fection in nature and in humanity as a
Some indications of a desire to produce part of nature. It is what the poet wants
the impossible, may be found in the ex- to become completely engulfed in so that
cerpts that follow. In "Partida," the first he can understand it fully and thus create
poem of Dispersdo, the use of the direct it. If he can be in its dreams, he can be a

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 260 WILLIAM W. MEGENNEY Hispania 59 (May 1976)

Falta-me
part of it, and thus, eventually, be egoismo
able to para ascender ao ceu,
use it for artistic purposes. Falta-me uncio p'ra me afundar no lodo.
Nao sou amigo de ningubm. P'ra o ser
In his search for this mysterious ele-
Forqoso me era antes possuir
ment which the poet wants so Quem
desperately
eu estimasse-ou homem ou mulher,
to comprehend, he reveals through
E eu nio logro the
nunca possuir! ... (p. 70)
written word certain suppressed emotions.
The fact that Sai-Carneiro expresses the
These emotions are the clues which
desire point
to have either a man or a woman to
toward the reasons why the author yearned
"possess," reveals the poet's extraordinary
so to grasp this beleza. longing for human communication. He
A lack of family warmthsimply
during Sai- how to love and be
cannot discover
Carneiro's childhood forced him to seek loved by the human race.
love outside the bounds of parental rela- As he continues to wish for spiritual
tionships. This becomes clear in the fifthcontact in "Como Eu ndo Possuo," ex-
strophe of the poem "Dispersio," whenclaiming how much he would love to pos-
Sa-Carneiro recalls what Sundays used tosess a feminine passer-by that he sees in the
be like in Paris:
street, he again confesses his impotency.
Porque um domingo ' familia, Even though the ardent desire is present,
E bem-estar, singeleza, the poet must confess that he becomes
E os que olham a beleza
Ndo tem bem-estar nem familia. (p. 62) retado3 when attempting to find the per-
fect link with humanity:
Further evidence of the vacuum which
De embate ao meu amor todo me ruo,
resulted from not having any love from
E vejo-me em destroCo at' vencendo:
either mother or father can be found in E que eu teria s6, sentindo e sendo
the poem titled "Como Eu nio Possuo" of Aquilo que estrebucho e nio possuo. (p. 72)
Dispersao. The poet confesses that he does Sa-Caneiro therefore recognizes his de-
not have the capabilities to experience the plorable state and weeps for himself be-
pleasures that most people enjoy every day: cause of the terrible sensation of fatality
Olho em volta de mim. Todos possuem- that this frustration produces:
Um afecto, um sorriso ou um abraqo.
Como se chora um amante,
S6 para mim as Ansias se diluem
Assim me choro a mim mesmo:
E nio possuo mesmo quando enlaqo. (p. 70) Eu fui amante inconstante
Sai-Carneiro cannot feel the total beau- Que se traiu a si mesmo.
ties of nature and therefore is unable to ("Dispersdo," p. 62)
reproduce them in the perfect artistic This seemingly outward confession to
form. This is the beginning of his frustra-narcissism is actually an admission of being
tion: incapable of communicating with nature.
Roa por mim, em longe, a teoria The poet says that he betrayed himself as
Dos espasmos golfados ruivamente; an unsteadfast lover because he is unable
Sio xtases da cor que eu fremiria, to partake of love or beauty from the
Mas a minh'alma pAra e nio os sente! (p. 70) standpoint of an ideal to be fulfilled. He
The poet has never been able to finddoes not say that he loves himself nor that
himself as a whole person belonging in the he ever did love himself. He says only
world in which he was born. Therefore, he that he attempted to love and that he be-
must either escape to another world or be trayed himself because his efforts did not
forever condemned to suffer the conse- come to fruition. In fact, if he had loved
quences of not having control of his own himself and had been a narcissist, he
senses:
would have had himself as the object of
Quero sentir. Nao sei... perco-me todo... his love and should have established the
Nio posso afeiCoar-me nem ser eu: perfect union with beauty through this

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 MARIo DE SA-CARNEIRO'S STRUCGLE FOR PERFECTION 261
self-love. Since he confesses his own im- mentarily approaches love, which is beauty
perfection, however, this love would have (beleza), because at the instant of looking
been impossible because the poet, in his at and kissing his hands, he forces himself
literature, is constantly striving for abso- mentally to approach love, beauty, and
lute perfection. humanity, as they merge into one entity.
It may be possible that Sa-Carneiro At the same time, the lines indicate juxta-
contemplated at some time the idea ofposition of sentiments since a feeling of
searching for this magic link with beauty pity is also present at this moment of deep
within himself as a form of narcissism. He metamorphic contemplation-pity for him-
self because he knows that he will never
writes, for example, in "Dispers~io," the
following: be able to experience the perfection of this
Regresso dentro de mim mysterious trinity. The metamorphosis
Mas nada me fala, nada! from an imperfect human state to a perfect
Tenho a alma amortalhada. spiritual one cannot be completed. For this
Sequinha, dentro de mim. (p. 63) reason, his suffering is two-fold since he is
very much aware of the reason for his
This testifies to the poet's unsuccessful
plunge within himself to find himself.dilemma and yet can do nothing but pre-
Since there is no life inside of him, how-tend to produce what he knows he is not
ever, he cannot remain there and mustcapable of realizing. This is a terrible state
search elsewhere for the living water that of mind. It is in essence, the same type of
he so desperately needs. anguish that we find expressed by Fer-
nando
As Sai-Carneiro continues to wish for the Pessoa as Alvaro de Campos:
ability to understand nature fully, he again Mal sei como conduzir-me na vida
Com este mal-estar a fazer-me pregas na alma!
expresses what on the surface appears to be Se ao menos endoidecesse deveras!
narcissism:
Mas n5o: e este estar entre,
Ternura feita saudade, Este quase,
Eu beijo as minhas mdos brancas ... Este poder ser que...
Isto.
Sou amor e piedade
Em face dessas mdos brancas ... Um internado num manic6mio ', ao menos,
alguem,
Tristes mios longas e lindas
Que eram feitas p'ra se dar ... Eu sou um internado num manic6mio sem
manicomio.
Ningubm mas quis apertar ...
Estou doido a frio,
Tristes mios longas e lindas ... (p. 64)
Estou licido e louco,
Upon closer observation and within the Estou alheio a tudo e igual a todos:
context of all of Si-Carneiro's writings, one Estou dormindo desperto com sonhos que sio
loucura
realizes that these lines evoke images rep-
Porque ndo sio sonhos.4
resenting perfection. Adjectives such as
"white," and "beautiful," which reappear In the same spirit as Alvaro de Campos,
with relative frequency throughout Sa- Sai-Carneiro writes:
Carneiro's poems, are words generally used Perdi a morte e a vida,
by Latin nations to describe the perfect E, louco, ndo enlouqueo ...
A hora foge vivida
qualities of humanity. The poet kisses his Eu sigo-a, mas permanego...
own hands not as a gesture of self-love but
("Dispersio," p. 65)
rather as a means to attain a basic under-
This soul-crushing predicament con-
standing of what true beauty is and of tinues to rend the poet's heart as he faces
how to interpret that beauty artistically. reality by saying that no one wanted to
It follows, then, that the verses "Sou fondle his hands. Herein, once again, we
amor e piedade / Em face dessas m os find the emptiness in Si-Carneiro's soul
brancas . . ." imply that the author mo- due to a lack of parental love and to the

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262 WILLIAM W. MEGENNEY Hispania 59 (May 1976)

misfortune of never having been

This able
same to
Princess, which is Sai-
neiro's
communicate successfully with the beleza,
beauty becomes idealized an
of life. This is why hiscarnate
handsat the are
same time in several of the
sad.
They cannot find what they poet's want
journeysbecause
into his self-made dream
they cannot be what they world.want to of
Perhaps one be,
the best examples
namely, hands which have the
of this power
is found in theto
poem titled "Certa
Voz na Noite way.
create true beauty in a meaningful Ruivamente," in Indicios de
Ouro:
All hope of ever being able to unite him-
self to life as the person he wanted
Esquivo sortilgio oto
dessabe
voz, opiada
has tumbled down and left Sa-Carneiro Em sons cor de amaranto, 'as noites de incer-
teza,
only with the consolation of knowing that Que eu lembro n5o sei de Onde-a voz duma
he is going to die. He writes, in "Alem- Princesa
T4dio": Bailando meia nua entre clar6es de espada.
E s6 me resta hoje uma alegria: Leonina, ela arremessa a carne arroxeada;
E~ que, de tdo iguais e tdo vazios, E babeda de Si, arfante de Beleza,
Os instantes me esvoam dia a dia Acera os seio; nus, descobre o sexo ... Reza
Cada vez mais velozes, mais esquios ... 0 espasmo que a estrebucha em Alma copu-
(Dispersdo, p. 74) lada . . .
He dreams of royal palaces and "gold" Entanto nunca a vi mesmo em visdo. Samente
(ouro), which represent his ideal, for they A sua voz a fulcra ao meu lembrar-me. Assim
are "Poeira de amor . . ." ("Ndo," of In- Nao lhe desejo a carne-a carne inexistente ...
dicios de Ouro, p. 88) and encompass 1 s6 de voz-em-cio a bailadeira astral-
the beleza for which SA-Carneiro searches. E nessa voz-Estitua, ah! nessa voz-total,
t que eu sonho esvair-me em vicios de mar-
The poet's ideal is also a Queen who fim . . . (pp. 92-93)
lives in the Palace, but the Queen is old
and paralyzed and serves no purpose. This As the poem so graphically
is Sa-Carneiro, who knows that he can no and as may be seen throughou
longer struggle to attain his ideal. The last Indicios de Ouro (the title itse
verses of "Nao" are a confession of his the contents), Si-Caneiro is
impoverished state of mind: perience quick flashes of ecst
-A Rainha velha ' a minha Alma- his imagination is sparked by u
exangue ... and sounds which enable him
-O Paqo Real o meu genio ... enjoy rare sensations of a spir
-E os drag6es sdo o meu sangue vated
... tone as he strives for the
of-being
(Se a minha alma fosse uma Princesas nua which he knows h
E debochada e linda .. .) (p. 91) reach.
Here reality is seen allegorically
The in highly
the suggestive and
first three verses, and unfulfilled hopeful
aspect of the images which the
wishing in the two in parentheses.
canSai-Car-
be seen in the use of syne
cor de
neiro wants his soul to be a beautiful, amaranto), in the selec
nude
Princess. But since reality scriptive
for him is words (incerteza),
quency
stronger than the world of fantasy whichof allegorical allusio
he has written about, he suffers mental Si, Beleza, Alma),
Princesa,
dispersion and is unable to face very
realitynature
be- of the source of th
cause reality is not what he wants.
sion: aAs a
voice coming from an
result, he breaks up and insteadplace
of turning
in the darkness of night,
in the direction of communicative possibili-
opium. The ideality of the vis
ties with beauty, he disintegrates
to and
mindheads
not only by the perfid
for oblivion which is the ultimate step she is and does, but
and what
along the road of dispersdo. use of the adverb ruivamente in the title

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 MARIO DE SA-CARNEIRO'S STRUGGLE FOR PERFECTION 263

of the poem; this automatically suggests cabulary

a that calls to mind the kinds of
sandy color which, in turn, represents a
techniques used by the "school" of Span-
fair, blonde Princess, the ideal model, ishasAmerican Modernists inspired by the
we have said, according to Latin tastes. Azul and Prosas profanas periods of Rub6n
This entire idea is completed by theDario. in- These Spanish American Modern-
clusion of the amaranth, a very beautifulists, as does Sa-Carneiro, strive for a per-
and colorful imaginary flower that never fect synthesis of form and meaning in
dies. poetry. They both emphasize words and
Yet, alas, in the word "imaginary" we phrases evoking sensations and aesthetic
have hit upon the crux of the poet's prob- and physiological "correspondences." Their
lem:-a carne inexistente. He knows that use of synesthesia is one example of this.
the ideal goal of understanding and creat- The preoccupation with creating images
ing perfect beauty is just that-ideal, andwhich are full of light, colors, sounds,
ideals like this one, which are contrary to odors, and tastes is another common de-
the poet's nature, are never attained. Thisnominator. Just as the Spanish American
is why he says "Nao lhe desejo a carne-,"Modernists struggled in their minds to
because once again, in the midst of his reach exotic lands, so Sa-Carneiro longs to
fantastic dream, he awakes to reality, and venture forth spiritually in order to find
reality is what tortures him to such an ex-happiness (for example, in "Distante
treme degree. Melodia"). Certain word-symbols relished
In spite of the torture, however, Sa- by the Modernists in Spanish America,
Carneiro is able to find flashes of exaltationsuch as "iris," "princess," "palace," "gold,"
and can grasp them for a longer period of and "satin," are used to full advantage by
Sa-Carneiro.
time than if they were only the ethereal
mist of which reveries are made. He There are also certain psychological par-
achieves this elation by resorting to allelisms
the between Dario's and Sa-Carneiro's
creation of Parnassian figures so that his which are interesting to note: both
works
intangible visions become solidified.needed The to escape reality, albeit for different
"Voice-in-heat," which is the "heavenly reasons, and both were destined to wake
dancer," turns into a "voice-Statue," a "to- up to reality and find that they really pre-
talvoice," with which Sa-Carneiro longs ferred
to their self-fabricated worlds of non-
communicate. The suggestion evoked by
reality. Dario, abandoning, for the most
Estcitua with a capital "E" is two-fold: part,it the exterior pomp of his literary
is the poet's ideal in his dream world, style,
and becomes highly sensitive to meta-
an ideal which has taken on a very physical solid doubt. His Cantos de vida y es-
form, one which the poet can "feel,"peranza and and the other poems after 1905
which, as he evanesces farther and farther exemplify this attitude. The Nicaraguan
into his momentary realm of ideal sensa- poet becomes fully aware that the ideal
tions, he can almost enjoy as an experience creation in life can never be attained. He
of attaining perfection, as the entire image confesses, in the poem "Yo soy aquel .
envelops him in a pleasant tactile hedon- that his thirst for illusions can never be
ism of ivory. The sensation never reaches quenched, "y una sed de ilusiones infinita.""
perfection, however, because Sa-Carneiro Dario, like Sai-Carneiro, sought escape
is too much aware of the real world andthrough of the blue vastness of space, only
what he is in this life. to plummet to earth without any sense of
Sa-Carneiro's poetry, especially in Indi- direction. He writes, in "Lo fatal," "y no
cios de Ouro, is pregnant with descriptive saber ad6nde vamos, / ni de d6nde veni-
words, and one can cite many examples mos!of. . ." (Azul . . . , p. 168). S-Carneiro,
the poet's use of a highly suggestivein vo-
turn, says, "Nio sei aonde vou, nem

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264 WILLIAM W. MEGENNEY Hispania 59 (May 1978)

E de asde
vejo o que persigo . . ." (Indicios pintar com um verniz parisiense,
Ouro,
Vou-me mais e mais enternecendo
"16," p. 96). For both poets, reality is a
Ate chorar por Mim ... ("Manucure," p. 170)
stumbling block which impedes the at-
tainment of perfection. Dario writes,
The poet's life-long experiences are ex-
"Bosque ideal que lo real complica"
pressed in this(Azul
same poem, as the unattain-
. , p. 114), and Sa-Carneiro:
ment of the goal foreshadows self-destruc-
tion:
Parti. Mas logo regressei ? dor,
Pois tudo me ruiu ... Tudo era igual:
E hi, no grande Espelho de fantasmas
A quimera, cingida, era real,Que ondula e se entregolfa todo o meu passado,
A pr6pria maravilha tinha cor!
Se desmorona o meu presente,
(DispersCdo, "Alm-T6dio,"
E o p.
meu74)
futuro C ji poeira ...
Both poets' gardens of potential ideal cre- ("Manucure," p. 170)
ativity become impossible places of refuge
Here, the "Espelho de fantasmas" re-
for them. Dario refers to hisfers
poetry as his
to the imaginative world that Sa-Car-
"jardin de suefio" (Azul . . neiro
. , p. built around
113), inhimself and which is
which "la adusta perfecci6n thejamis
ultimate se en-
cause of his death.7
trega, / y el secreto ideal duerme en la
It is at this point in Sa-Carneiro's life
sombra" (Azul . . . , p. 115). SA-Carneiro
(May 1915) that he experiences one last
expresses this idea by writing, "-0 pinta-
surge of ecstasy as the Ideal now appears
nos de Mim-jardim estagnado! .. ." (In-
floating in the air in different shapes of
dicios de Ouro, "Apoteose,"various
p. 97).objects and in diverse sounds. Re-
Sa-Carneiro, taking full stylistic
alizing that advan-
achieving his goal is definitely
tage of "ivory-tower" aesthetics, especially
impossible, he adjusts all his efforts to the
in Indicios de Ouro, laments over
task of and over
finding pleasure in another form
again his destiny as he foresees his
of Ideal. The own
poet then attempts to refind
downfall, knowing that he can never reach
himself:
the ideal point of perfect creativity:
Deponho entdo as minhas limas,
Hai sempre um grande Arco As
aominhas
fundo dos
tesouras, os meus godets de verniz,
meus olhos ... Os polidores da minha sensagqo-
A cada passo a minha alma e outra cruz, E solto meus olhos a enlouquecerem de Ar!
E o meu cora?go gira: e uma roda de cores . .. ("Manucure," p. 171)
Ndo sei aonde vou, nem vejo o que persigo . ..
(Indicios de Ouro, "16," p. 96) The poet momentarily concentrates his
energy on absorbing, as he states, this new
On the twenty-sixth of April, 1915, we
found Beleza, which for him represents a
find Sa-Carneiro seated alone in a Parisian
form of escape from the spiritual and phys-
cafe taking another mental trip through
ical tortures that the struggle to gain the
the portal of his imagination: Ultimate produced. Here Sa-Carneiro has
Na sensa?go de estar polindo as minhas unhas, affirmed the fact that the Beleza he seeks
Siibita sensa8lo inexplic vel de ternura, is the Platonic ones in the strict sense of
Todo me incluo em Mim-piedosamente.
(Jhltimos Poemas, "Manucure," p. 169) the word, which can be attained through
As he includes himself in Himself, that the complete comtemplation of beleza as
is, his flesh and blood self into the Ideal it exists in the physical world in the form
of numbers and letters as well as all sorts
he would become, he cries because he
knows that these sensations are ethereal of shapes and sounds of various dimen-
and unreal. Because he is tortured by the sions. In other words, the poet now wants
imperfection of reality, he continues to to allay his former suffering by concentrat-
suffer: ing his sights on the ultimate Beleza as it
E eu sempre na sensagno de polir as minhas reflects itself in those physical entities
unhas which are perfect.9 He writes:

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 MARIO DE SA-CARNEIRO'S STRUGGLE FOR PERFECTION 265

Avido, em sucessio da nova Beleza atmosf&rica,exists physically. In order to become this

O meu olhar coleia sempre em frenesis de
new Eu, he must be totally enveloped by
absorve-la
the Ideal, the Ultimate-State-of-Being, the
A minha volta. ("Manucure," p. 173)
Good in Plato's realm of the eternal, or
It is evident in this outburst of literary Nirvana in Buddha's philosophy. And, as
production that SA-Carneiro longs to bein the Platonic allegory, since this Ideal
free and he attempts to find this freedom gives meaning to all of the other "layers"
in the air which, according to him, willin life, the destruction of or the inability
enable his body and soul to be caught upto reach the Ideal would mean the dissolu-
into a perfect Beleza where he will en- tion of S.-Carneiro himself, since he is
counter complete liberty. He writes in the part of the world which depends for its
poem titled "Apoteose": existence on the Ideal. Destroy the Ideal
Eu pr6prio sinto-me ir transmitido pelo ar, aosand you have destroyed Sa-Carneiro. Since
novelos! (p. 177) the poet knows that he can never attain
the Ideal because of his innate lack of
Tudo isto, porem, tudo isto, de novo eu refiro
ao Ar
ability to do so, he automatically destroys
the Ideal, and so he destroys himself. This
Pois toda esta Beleza ondeia 1h tamb6m:
paradoxical situation is given expression in
Nnimeros e letras, firmas e cartazes-
Altos relevos, ornamentagio!. . . - a frequently quoted stanza of "Dispersio":
Palavras em liberdade, sons sem-fio, A grande ave doirada
(p. 181) Bateu asas para os ceus,
Nevertheless, at the end of this poem Mas fechou-as saciada
Ao ver que ganhava os ceus. (p. 62)
Sa-Carneiro awakens to reality and losing
all of his sanity in one final explosion, con- The same admission of the impossibility
fesses that he will never attain the beautyof attaining the Ideal is expounded in
he spent so much time and energy search-"Sete Cang6es de Declinio," where the
ing for: poet, absolutely cognizant of the fact that
Levanto-me ... his perfect treasure in life is only a dream,
-Derrota! reiterates, as it were, the principal theme
of his entire corpus of poetry:
-O sonho desprendido, o luar errado, Misterio duma incerteza
Nunca em meus versos poderei cantar,
Como ansiara, at6 ao espasmo e ao Oiro, Que nunca
Sonhador emse h,-deaofixar
frente mar ...
Toda essa Beleza inatingivel, Duma olvidada riqueza ... (p. 121)
Essa Beleza pura! (p. 182)
Sa-Carneiro then ends the poem withTa HE UNBEARABLE TORMENT Of not ful-
fling of onomatopoetic words indicating filling his dream of understanding
the sounds of complete destruction as the
completely and of being unable to create
dispersion which constantly threatened the perfect form of Beauty and thereby
him draws near its consummation. escape the desperation which engulfed
him because of a lack of communication
Mairio de SA-Carneiro's ardent desires to
with humanity and with himself, helped
reach Beauty reappear in July and August
of 1915 when he writes in "2" of "Sete provoke his suicide on April 26, 1916. If it
Canq6es de Declinio" (Indicios de Ouro): had not been for SA-Carneiro's literary cre-
Quero ser Eu plenamente: ation, through which he found a way of
Eu, o possesso do Pasmo. continuing the quest for the perfect crea-
-Todo o meu entusiasmo, tion, he probably would have expired
Ah! que seja o meu oriente! (p. 120) earlier in life.'0 The strain on the poet
Here, he is saying that he wants to be caused by an impossible task of creativity,
the ideal Eu, which is not the real eu thatcoupled with an unexpected financial cri-

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 266 WILLIAM W. MEGENNEY Hispania 59 (May 1976)

sis, completed the process of presses the exact in

dispersion state in which the poet finds
himself.
Sai-Carneiro's life and brought about his
demise. 40bras completas de Fernando Pessoa, ii (Lis-
bon: EdiSesto
references Atica,
pages1964), pp.
in this 52-53. Further
collection will be
By way of a concluding note I would
recall two of the metaphorsgiven in the text.
mentioned at
5The word Princesa appears with a capital
the beginning of this article ("Castelos des-
"P" here because ideality and reality are juxta-
mantelados" and "Le6es alados sem
posed. The poet juba
wants to attain his Ideal in life
.. .") and suggest that theywhich
may now
is the be of the perfect form of
creation
understood in a deeper sense. beauty.
After This, of course, is impossible since the
having
examined the problem of theIdeal itself (cf.
struggle Platonic philosophy) and the
for
concrete realization of that Ideal are diametri-
perfection as it appears in cally
Si-Carneiro's
opposed as they are mutually exclusive, the
poetry, we should now realize that tothe
one belonging the world of the spirit or mind
winged lions, which can fly, and the
areother to the world of the material. It is
incom-
plete, as the poet is, since precisely
they have this impossibility
no of joining these twi
worlds into one that causes SA-Carneiro's deep
manes (an image connotingfrustration.
the absence
of maleness, i.e., impotency) andDario,
6Rub6n there-Azul . . . , El salmo de la
fore serve no purpose as they lift Cantos
pluma, off into
de vida y esperanza, Otros po-
the air and float around withemas no(Mexico:
fixedEditorial
des- Porr6a, S.A., 1965),
tination. Si-Carneiro's demolished castles p. 114. Further references to Azul . .. will be
given in the text.
are, of course, his splendid dreams of at- 7This same kind of objectification of senti-
taining perfection which have crumbled ments which torture the body and the soul to
down around him as he becomes aware of the point of extinction can be found in the
his true incapabilities. It is easy for us toMexican Modernist, Manuel Gutierrez NAjera.
see, then, how Sa-Carneiro's life and works It is possible that SA-Carneiro may have drawn
some of his thematic as well as spiritual inspira-
abound in negative elements, and how andtion from this nineteenth-century poet since in
why these elements finally destroyed him. both we find the same types of metaphors used
His inability to endure against these forces to express states of very deep emotion. One good
with which life countered him made Sa- example of this in Gutibrrez Nijera may be
found in the poem entitled "Mis enlutadas":
Carneiro an excellent example of the hu- Descienden taciturnas las tristezas
man suffering which was outstanding in al fondo de mi alma,
so many writers of his time. y entumecidas, haraposas brujas,
con ufias negras
NOTES mi vida escarban.

10bras completas de Mdrio de Sd-Carneiro, ii

(Lisbon: EdiS6es Atica, 1946), p. 65. Further Abrese a recibirlas la infinita
references to pages in this collection will betiniebla de mi alma,
given in the text. y van prendiendo en ella mis recuerdos
cual tristes cirios
2Ricardo Gull6n, in Direcciones del modernis-
mo (Madrid: 1971) presents an excellent analy- de cera pilida.
sis of the theories and beliefs of the major ex- (Julio Caillet Bois, Antologia de la
ponents of Pythagoreanism, Buddhism, and poesia hispanoamericana, Madrid:
Christianity. Herein is explained in a very con- Aguilar, 1956, p. 727.)
cise and succinct manner the principal concepts 8The scheme of Plato's four stages of cogni-
of "metamorphosis, the eternal recurrence, tionand
is found in the Republic, and is elaborated
the circular and cyclical conception of exist- upon in the Phaedrus, and in the Symposium.
ence . . ." (pp. 132-33), especially as it is Sa-Carneiro, at this stage of his striving for
manifested in the Modernist movement. metamorphic transcendence, attempts to reach
3The word retado is a non-translatable slang the Good through the mathematical objects of
expression approaching the connotation of "frus-the intelligible world which serve as a link with
trated" or "not being able to climax," especiallythe visible things of the world of appearances.
in sexual contexts. It is used here because it ex- By doing this, the poet hopes to establish a

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 MARIO DE Ski-CARNEIRO's STRUGGLE FOR PERFECTION 267

bridge between the two worlds and thus escape
the torture of the physical world by entering the
spiritual and eventually attaining what Plato
designates as noesis or Intelligence.
This same notion is also expressed in Ricardo
Gull6n's essay, Pitagorismo y modernismo (op.
cit.). Gull6n's closing sentence summarizes Si-
Carneiro's state of mind at this particular mo-
ment of time: "No se olvide que para el budismo
y el pitagorismo seguir viviendo es una con-
dena; la vida, y mais cuanto mis baja sea, aleja
y hace imposible ese extrafio paralelo del paraiso
que es el nirvana" (p. 136). As in Plato's phi-
losophy, Pythagoras also sought to bridge the
gap between worlds with numbers, as SA-Car-
neiro. Gull6n further writes: "El pitagorismo
fue visto como un sistema concebido para poner
orden en el caos; los niimeros son cifras magicas
que revelan-si acaso no ocultan-la significaci6n
secreta de las cosas" (pp. 108-09).
9This momentary change in the direction the
poet seeks for an escape can be compared to the
dichotomy of the universe as it is explained by
Arthur Ganz in his article "Human and Supra-
human: Ambiguity in the Tragic World of
Jean Giraudoux" (PMLA, 87 [March 1972], p.
284). That is to say, the new Beleza which SA-
Carneiro hopes to attain is, at this particular
moment of his life, no longer a part of the
human, flesh and blood side of existence, but
rather "that great Romantic image of a beauty,
power, and mystery that lies beyond the range
of human experience." Just as the typical Girau-
doux character when he sees that reality is too
tragic to bear, Sa-Carneiro also at this point in
time "steps aside and continues his quest for
that vision which, though its pursuit may in-
volve his own destruction, is more tempting,
more satisfying than the pain and coarseness of
ordinary existence." Sa-Carneiro here, too, is the
victim of the "ambiguity of that Romantic ide-
ality" (p. 288) for which he searches.
xOIn the historical anthology Presenga da lite-
ratura portuguisa (III, Simbolismo e Modernis-
mo) compiled and edited by Ant6nio Soares
Amora, Massaud Mois6s, and Segismundo Spina
(Sao Paulo, 1961), p. 233, the fact of the poet's
very heavy dependence upon literature for every-
day survival is stated: "uma vida que s6 existe
como Literatura no born e no mau sentido, pela
exacerbaqdo da fantasia apoiada numa imagina-
9o sem limites, ex6tica, levando-o a planos neu-
r6ticos, arrancando o Poeta do solo jhi frigil sob
dos pes. Sua vida 6 sua poesia, de forma que esta
documenta um ser que se procura inditilmente
porque necessita de um "suporte" para evitar a
"dispersdo" interior, e, quem diz interior, diz
total."
Interestingly enough, this same concept of
attaining an ideal through the medium of litera-
ture, and especially poetry, was very prevalent
among the Modernists. Ricardo Gull6n (op. cit.)
informs us that "Lo sustancial de la doctrina (of
pythagoras) consistia en una concepci6n ritmica
del universo y de la vida que los modernistas no
s61o aceptaron sino convirtieron en idea central
determinante de la creaci6n pobtica. La poesia
se les aparecia como articulaci6n ritmica de in-
tuiciones; el ritmo y la armonia que de 61 se de-
riva son claves de la belleza" (p. 108).

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