At New York Times, a 'Friendly Song' About Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Dwight Garner reviews the latest attempt at compiling aspects of Carlos Drummond de Andrade's astonishing, kaleidoscopic career. Multitudinous Heart brings together a selection of his poems as translated by Richard Zenith. The most celebrated Brazilian poet of the 20th century, de Andrade's poem "Friendly Song" was once even printed on a 50 cruzados bill. From NYT:

Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) is widely considered the greatest poet in the history of Brazil, a country where poets are taken seriously. One of his poems, “Canção Amiga” (“Friendly Song”), was once printed on the 50 cruzados bill.

Mr. Drummond’s bald, equine, bespectacled visage appears on T-shirts and book bags in Brazil. Since 2002 there has been a statue of him on the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, his adopted hometown. This statue faces away from, not toward, the ocean. This was a witty decision (he was an inward poet) that annoys the unintelligentsia, who want him spun around.

The indelible poet Elizabeth Bishop was among Mr. Drummond’s first English translators. This was good fortune. Her translations, as well as those of Mark Strand and others, appeared in a slim and elegant volume titled “Travelling in the Family: Selected Poems” (1986).

Now we have “Multitudinous Heart,” an expanded, reshuffled and welcome selection of Mr. Drummond’s verse. In new translations by Richard Zenith, we meet a sophisticated and cerebral poet who, true to this book’s title, speaks in many registers. He is by turns melancholy and ironic, sentimental and self-deprecating, remote and boyish. [...]

Read all about it at The New York Times.