Vozes Transmontanas na Paisagem. Paisagens de pedra e água na poesia de A. M. Pires Cabral

The poetic landscapes of A. M. Pires Cabral (Chacim, 1941) translate the encounter of man and poet with the region of Trás-os-Montes. However, landscape, as understood in this reflection, does not belong only to the domain of what is geographical, physical, exterior; in contrast, the landscape represented in the poems of A. M. Pires Cabral is understood as an inscription of intimacy and of the deepest convictions and principles rooted in the poet’s spirit. In the spring of 2012, and as part of the project Atlas Literário de Portugal Continental, José Barbieri produced a video about the essential landscapes of A. M. Pires Cabral, in particular about those places that while illustrating a geographical route also represent a poetic itinerary. Thus, the video consists of images and poems recorded in Alvites, Serra de Bornes, Alvão and Douro. In general, this work is primarily based on O Livro dos Lugares e Outros Poemas (1999), and it aims to underline how a careful reading of A. M. Pires Cabral’s poems may result in a rediscovery of the meaning(s) of place(s), something that, according to Luisa Bonesio, becomes imperative in today’s globalized world, “in which cultural differences and natural rugosity [are] annulled on a smooth, continuous surface” (Bonesio 203). Thus, in this paper it is argued that the places represented in the poetry of A. M. Pires Cabral are the image of personal and poetic indentations and creases of a landscape long defined mainly by roughness, isolation, and solidity.