Alexandre O'Neill
Alexandre Manuel Vahia de Castro O'Neill de Bulhões ( born December 19, 1924 in Lisbon, Portugal, † August 21, 1986 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese poet of Irish descent. He is regarded as the most important surrealist poet of Portugal in the 20th century. He also worked as a newspaper columnist, screenwriter, television critic, translator and lyricist.
Life
Alexandre O'Neill, as he called himself simply, was born in 1924 in Lisbon as a descendant of Irish immigrants, who immigrated in the 40s of the 19th century Portugal. As a teenager, Alexandre was considered a sad and sealed. His aunt, Mary O'Neil, had been a leading feminists and suffragettes he their time in Portugal and also as a writer and spiritualist active. The young people often took part in such seances at his eccentric aunt. He grew up in a household bibliophile on, read a lot and discovered as the first writer for itself Teixeira de Pascoaes. Even as a high school student he began writing. His very first publication was a poem in 1942 in a magazine. In 1944 he attended for one year the Nautical School in Lisbon, because he wanted to be a captain, but left school without any qualifications. From 1946 to 1952 he worked as a clerk in a savings bank.
In Lisbon, he was co-founder together a group of surrealists with other writers and artists. His own first book was published in 1949 under the name A Ampela de miraculosa. As a young man he briefly had a Liaison with the French surrealist Nora Mitrani.
In 1953 he was imprisoned because of his work for 40 days in state prison Caxias. Previously, he was already monitored and observed by the PIDE and was considered a " public enemy ". 1966 have been translated into Italian some of his poems.
He also wrote screenplays for television and cinema, was columnist for Diario de Lisboa operates in the 70s under a pseudonym as a television critic on the way, wrote the text for the Fado " Gaivota ", which was sung by Amalia Rodrigues and translated, among others Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky and Alfred Jarry into Portuguese.
He was married twice and has two sons. His second wife, Teresa Gouveia, worked in Portugal as a politician, she was repeatedly Minister ( Foreign Affairs and Culture ) and Member of the Portuguese Parliament.
Alexandre O'Neill died in 1986 from heart problems in Lisbon.
2004 turned the director Fernando Lopes a documentary on O'Neill, who appeared as a DVD ( in a double edition with his documentary film about Pina Bausch in Lisbon).
Works (selection)
- A Ampela de miraclosa, 1949, poetry.
- Tempo de Fantasmas, 1951, lyric.
- Poemas com endereço, 1962, lyric.
- No Reino da Dinamarca, ( Obra Poetica 1951-1965 ), 1967, poetry.
Swell
- Http://www.portugal.poetryinternationalweb.org
- Http://www.vidaslusophonas.com