“The Slow Sace of Poetry”

An Interview With Ricardo Marques by Marcus Vinícius Lessa de Lima

Abstract

This interview with Portuguese poet and translator Ricardo Marques (b. 1983) opens with a preamble in which the author outlines his engagement with contemporary poetry and comments on a critical diagnosis according to which poetry and poets have become confined within academic institutions. Marques then gives his account of the experience of many poets – himself included – who left Portugal around 2013 in the wake of the global political and financial crisis. From a broader perspective, he discusses the validity of two distinct approaches to exile: one that interpretates it as a geopolitical and biographical phenomenon, and another that conceives it as a philosophical topos. The interview continues with a section devoted to the circulation and criticism of poetry in Portugal today, and finishes with reflections on the contemporary reception of Portuguese poetry in Brazil and Brazilian poetry in Portugal.