Activity 2 - Favela and Poetry
Favelas are part of a long historical colonial process of segregation and divisions. The article
“On the Origin of favela” makes reference to slavery, wars and lack of housing:
http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=2920
The word favela is commonly associate with the
word slum, shantytown, squatter community or ghetto.
Each of these words carries a negative connotation,
slum implies squalor, shantytown suggests precarious housing,
squatter community hints at illegality and ghetto presupposes violence.
None of these definitions do justice to the richness of
favela cultre or acknowledge the historical place
of the favela in Brazilian history. (Rio on Watch)
The Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade wrote about the Favela of Babilonia, one
of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
Read the poem and try to identify the meaning of the underlined words.
Note that you may consult a dictionary, but first, try to identify them according to your
knowledge of English or any other languages you might speak.
Morro da Babilônia
À noite, do morro
descem vozes que criam o terror
(terror urbano, cinquenta por cento de cinema,
e o resto que veio de Luanda ou se perdeu na língua geral).
Quando houve revolução, os soldados se espalharam no morro,
o quartel pegou fogo, eles não voltaram. Alguns, chumbados, morreram.
O morro ficou mais encantado.
Mas as vozes do morro
não são propriamente lúgubres.
Há mesmo um cavaquinho bem afinado
que domina os ruídos da pedra e da folhagem e desce até nós, modesto e recreativo,
como uma gentileza do morro.
(Carlos Drummond de Andrade, In. Sentimento do mundo.)
1. The words that are similar in two different languages are called cognate words. Make a
list of the cognate words you found in the poem.
2. What do these words convey about the nature of the favela?
3. Now observe the suffixes -em and -am added to the end of the verbs. What do they
represent? And how about the particle -s at the end of nouns and adjectives? What do
they stand for?
4. The words morro and cavaquinho are in italics. Do some research and try to find the
meaning of these words. What is a morro? What is a cavaquinho and what it is generally
used for?
5. From your knowledge of the cognate words and the research about the words morro and
cavaquinho, how is the favela represented in Drummond’s poem? Is it a good or a bad
representation? Are there any contradictions in this portrayal?
6. Based on your linguistic and cultural knowledge of the terms used in the poem, can you
translate some of its lines?
7. Now, read the poem “The Burglar of Babylon” by Elizabeth Bishop, an American
Laureate poet who lived in Brazil and was an admirer of Drummond. What does her
poem have in common with Drummond’s? What do they say about favelas?
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-burglar-of-babylon/