Reading Literature in Portuguese

Claudia Pazos Alonso

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351191937
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

"This collection brings together textual commentaries on thirty representative works of literature in Portuguese - either complete poems or extracts from longer works - ranging from the medieval lyric of the 13th century, through the poetry and drama of the Portuguese Renaissance, the great Realist novels of the nineteenth century, early twentieth century Modernism and post-1974 writings through to the present day, while also including examples of 19th- and 20th- century Brazilian literature. The authors chosen - poets, dramatists and novelists - are generally regarded as iconic writers, and the three most famous canonical Portuguese authors (Luis de Camoes, Fernando Pessoa, Jose Saramago) are featured, but the texts selected for commentary strike a balance between a focus on well-known and lesser-studied works. All the primary texts are reproduced in Portuguese, sometimes in original editions, with English translations added for the majority. The contributors variously explicate and contextualise the works they present, some focusing on hidden meaning, others on philological aspects of editing, others on their historical, intellectual and philosophical context, and others still on the process of translation itself. All, however, aim to develop the art of reading, for the benefit of scholars and students alike. Stephen Parkinson and Claudia Pazos Alonso are members of the Sub-Faculty of Portuguese at Oxford University, and editors of the Companion to Portuguese Literature (Tamesis, 2009)."

1
How to Eat a Spider

Alfonso X: Cantiga de Santa Maria 225

Stephen Parkinson

Como un clerigo ena missa consomiu hua aranna que lle caeu no caliz

R Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen faz estranno e fremoso,
porque a verdad’ entenda o neicio perfioso.

I E daquest’ un gran miragre vos será per mi contado
e d’ oir maravilloso pois oíde o de grado
que mostrou a Santa Virgen de que Deus por nos foi nado
dentro en Cidad-Rodrigo. E é mui maravilloso
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

II ontr’ os outros que oistes, e tenn’ eu que atal éste
o que vos contarei ora que avẽo a un preste
que dizia sempre missa da madre do Rei celeste;
e porque a ben cantava era en mui desejoso
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

III o poblo de lla oiren. Mas un dia, sen falida
ena gran festa d’ Agosto desta Sennor mui comprida
estava cantando missa e pois ouve consomida
a

quis o sangui consomir do glorioso
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

IV Jesucrist’. E viu no caliz jazer ũa grand’ aranna
dentro no sangui nadando e teve o por estranna
cousa; mais mui grand’ esforço fillou, a foro d’ Espanna,
e de consomir-lo todo non vos foi mui vagaroso.
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

V E pois aquest’ ouve feito non quis que ll’ enpeecesse
Deus o poçon da aranna nen lle no corpo morresse
e pero andava viva non ar quis que o mordesse
mas ontr’ o coir’ e a carne

Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

VI E andava muit’ aginna pelo corp’ e non fazia
door nen mal, por vertude da Virgen Santa Maria.
E se s’ ao sol parava log’ a aranna viia
e mostrando a a todos dizend’: ‘O Rei piadoso
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

VII quis que polos meus pecados aqueste marteir’ ouvesse;
poren rogo aa Virgen que se a ela prouguesse
que rogass’ ao seu fillo que cedo

morte désse
ou me tolless’ esta coita, ca ben é en poderoso.’
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

The Priest Who Swallowed a Spider

The Virgin performs many fine strange and handsome miracles, to reveal the truth to stubborn fools

[I] To show this I will tell you a great miracle, wondrous to hear, which the
Blessed Virgin, of whom God was born, revealed in Ciudad Rodrigo —
hear it and rejoice!. It is a most wondrous tale

[II] compared with others you have heard — and I am sure that this is true of
what I will now recount, which befell a priest who would always sing the
Mass of the Mother of our Heavenly King, and he sang it so well that the
people were always eager

[III] to hear him sing it. But one day, fatefully, on the high Feast of that worthy
lady in August, he was singing mass; and having eaten the Host, he then
prepared to drink the blood of our glorious

[IV] saviour Jesus Christ. And he saw a huge spider there in the chalice,
swimming around, and he was greatly surprised, but he summoned up his
courage, as a good Spaniard, and wasted no time in consuming everything.

[V] And once he had done this, it was God’s will that the poisonous spider did
not harm him, nor that it should die in his body; but instead that noxious
insect walked alive in him, and did not bite him, but passed between his
skin and his flesh.

[VI] And the spider moved quickly through his body, causing him no pain or harm,
by the power of the Blessed Virgin. And if he stood still in the light, the spider
could be seen, and he showed it to all the people, saying, ‘Our merciful Lord

[VII] wished me to suffer this torment for my sins; and so I entreat the Virgin, if
she sees fit, to ask her Son to take my life soon or relieve me of this grief,
for he has the power to do it.’

VIII Esta aranna andando per cima do espĩaço
e depois pelos costados e en dereito do baço,
des i ia ll’ aos peitos e sol non leixava braço
per que assi non andasse e o corpo mui veloso
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

IX avia esta aranna. E un dia, el estando
ao sol, ora de nõa foi ll’ o braç’ escaentando,
e el a coçar fillou s’ e non catou al senon quando
lle saiu per so a unlla aquel poçon tan lixoso.
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

X E tan toste que saída foi, o crerigo fillou a
e fez logo dela poos e en sa bolsa guardou a;
e quando disse sa missa consumiu a e passou a,
e disse que lle soubera a manjar mui saboroso.
Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen...

XI As gentes que i estavan quand’ ouveron esto visto
loaron muito a madre do santo rei Jesucristo;
e des ali adeante foi o crerigo por isto
mui mais na fe confirmado e non foi luxurioso.

R Muito bon miragr’ a Virgen faz estranno e fremoso,
porque a verdad’ entenda o neicio perfioso.

[VIII] And the spider went on crawling, over his backbone, and along his ribs,
right through his spleen and thence to his chest, and neither arm was spared
from its wandering; and most hairy

[IX] was the spider’s body. And one day, as he was outside at None, his arm
began to itch and he began to scratch it, and before he knew it out came
that poisonous filth from under his fingernail.

[X] And soon as it came out, the priest seized it and ground it to a powder which
he kept in a bag and the next time he said her mass, he ate and consumed
it, and said that it was a very tasty morsel.

[XI] All the people who were present. when they saw all this, gave praise to
the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. and from that day on the priest was
strengthened in his faith, and was cured of lust.

The Virgin performs many fine strange and handsome miracles, to reveal the truth to stubborn fools.

Narrative and Sources

The Cantigas de Santa Maria (CSM) are stories recounting miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary.¹ As such they conform to a set pattern: a situation is identified in which an individual, usually identified, is in peril of some kind (of losing their property, health, life, soul, or reputation), from which they are rescued by the miraculous intervention of the Mother of God. Each story has a number of possible morals, or can exemplify several of the saintly properties of the Virgin (her healing power, her intercession with God, her maternal instincts, her love for her own), making these miracle stories a storehouse of holy exempla for preachers. Many miracle stories are located in particular shrines of the Blessed Virgin, and were part of their promotion as places of pilgrimage.²

The Cantigas de Santa Maria are a unique collection in that they bring together one of the largest bodies of such miracle stories, as a highly structured collection of songs with their music and additional pictorial narratives. As well as exalting the power of the Virgin they are a luxurious thank offering to her by one of her greatest devotees, King Alfonso, and a demonstration to his unruly subjects that they should not oppose the chosen one of the greatest of all Saints. The Cantigas bring together a vast range of narratives, initially from the best known Marian shrines of Europe, found in multiple versions in the many marialia compiled in Latin and the main European vernaculars in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.³ In the latter part of the collection, as this supply dried up or proved unattractive, the majority of tales are linked to shrines in the Christian kingdoms of Iberia, and many of them are attested only in the poetic version of the Cantigas.

The essence of this story is a miraculous rescue from poisoning. A priest in the Spanish town of Ciudad Rodrigo is saying (or rather singing) mass on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin (a gran festa d’ Agosto, III.2),⁴ and is about to drink the consecrated wine when he spies a spider in the communion chalice (IV). He nevertheless swallows the wine and the spider, but fears for his life, as spiders were universally believed to be poisonous.⁵ The spider neither dies nor kills him, but remains visible under his skin: ‘se s’ ao sol parava log’ a aranna viia’ (VI.4). He asks the Virgin to intercede on his behalf, for God to take his life or remove his pain (VII); eventually, he scratches at an itching on his arm and the spider emerges (IX). The priest despatches it and powders it, and eats it (again!) at the next mass, to great rejoicing and praise of the Virgin (XI).

In the background there is a different crisis, the Eucharistic problem of contamination of consecrated wine. In this text the priest does not seem aware of any dilemma, but simply plucks up courage (‘mui grand’ esforço fillou’ IV.3 ) to take the only action open to him, and ensure that nothing is left of the contamination.⁶ There is no sense in which he is seen to have done the wrong thing, and his prowess at singing the Lady mass (‘dizia sempre missa da madre do rei celeste’ (II.3) should have guaranteed his healing — but he is still made to wait a while for relief, while God’s power is manifested in the presence of the live spider under his skin. The priest assumes that he is being punished for some past error (‘O rei piadoso / quis que pelos meus pecados aqueste marteir’ ouvesse’ VI.4–VII.1), and the end of the poem perhaps suggests that his sins were doubt and luxuria: (‘des ali adeante foi o crerigo por isto / mui mais na fe confirmado e non foiu luxurioso’ (XI).⁷ In the absence of a single clear devotional focus, the refrain of the poem, nominally stating its razon or moral, focuses on how the miraculous demonstration of the power of the Virgin can convert or correct the stubborn unbeliever.

No specific source has been identified for this story, among the many ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface: Tom's Teapot
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 How to Eat a Spider 5 Alfonso X: Cantiga de Santa Maria no. 225
• 2 A Tela da Dama 15 Estevam Coelho: 'Sedia la fremosa'
• 3 'Sou a triste, sem mezinha': microvariafoes em torno do Auto da Alma 23 Gil Vicente: Auto da Alma
• 4 It takes one to know one — o reconhecimento de judeus em cena 33 Francisco Sá de Miranda: Os Villialpatidos
• 5 A Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness 41 Francisco Sá de Miranda: 'Montano'
• 6 The English Reception of Sá de Miranda 51 Francisco Sá de Miranda: 'O sol é grande.'
• 7 Swansong 61 Luís de Camões: 'O cisne, quando sente ser chegada'
• 8 O canto poético camoniano coino epitáfio 71 Luís de Camões: 'Cara minha inimiga, em cuja mão'
• 9 'Transforma-se o amador na cousa amada': texto e contexto 81 Luís de Camões: 'Transforma-se o amador na cousa amada'
• 10 'Todos juntos seguiram dom Francisco' 89 Jerónimo Corte-Real: Sucesso do Segumio Cerco de Diu
• 11 Trent, Bait, and Deceit 101 Vasco Mousinho de Quevedo: 'Ás Relíquias de S. Cruz de Coimbra'
• 12 Conflict Resolution 109 Francisco Rodrigues Lobo: A Primavera
• 13 A Sonnet by the Marquise of Alorna 117 Leonor de Almeida Portugal: A uma Senhora que principiava a fazer versos'
• 14 Intimismo e comunidade galego-portuguesa 125 Rosalia de Castro: 'Dend' as fartas orelas do Mondego'
• 15 Libaninho 133 Eça de Queirós: O Crime do Padre Amaro
• 16 The Opening of A Ilustre Casa de Ramires and Oliveira Martins's Theories on Portuguese History 141 Eça de Queirós: A Ilustre Casa de Ramires
• 17 Translating Eça 153 An extract from Eça de Queirós: 'Um poeta lírico'
• 18 Small holocausts: the devastation of the self 161 Camilo Pessanha: 'Quem poluiu, quem rasgou os meus lençóis de linho'
• 19 A Sonnet from the English 169 Fernando Pessoa: 'Antígona'
• 20 Haunting Pianos: Pessoa and D. H. Lawrence 177 Bernardo Soares: Livro do Desassossego
• 21 Crimes and Confessions 187 Mário de Sá-Carneiro: A Confissão de Lúcio
• 22 Watch this Space 195 Florbela Espanca; 'Esfinge'
• 23 Recoding the Colonial Borders 203 Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa: Novas Cartas Portuguesas
• 24 A Harvest Raised from the Text 213 José Saramago: Levarttado do Chão
• 25 The Art of Seeing Queerly 221 Al Berto: 'Truque do Pêssego'
• 26 Interracial Intimacy as Site of Colonial Re-visioning 231 Lídia Jorge: O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas
• 27 Mignon's Song 239 Antônio Gonçalves Dias: 'Canção do exílio'
• 28 Mechanisms of Memory 249 Grac-iliano Ramos: Infância
• 29 Severino's Voice 257 João Cabral de Melo Neto: Morte e Vida Severina
• 30 The End, or is it? 265 Clarice Lispector: A Horn da Estrela
• Index