The philosophical poetics of Eduardo Lourenço’s essays

• Author(s): Reis, José Eduardo
• Date: 2025
• Origin: Filosofia. Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: Portuguese

Description

«Only the poetic word liberates the world» (2016: III, 74), states Eduardo Lourenço in Time and Poetry, one of his most famous essays, dated 1959, among the many he wrote about poetry and Portuguese poets. Eduardo Lourenço’s examination both of Fernando Pessoa’s destabilising poetic thought – e.g. Pessoa Revisited (1973) – and lay existentialist authors – e.g. Situation of Existentialism (1954) Camus’s Tragic Dialecics (1967), Sören Kierkegaard, God’s Spy (1967) – led him towards a predominantly essayistic writing strategy, towards a place of pure interpellation developed from an early age to respond to «calamitous times, like those of Montaigne, precisely in which two orders of opposing and equally impersonal certainties demanded the sacrifice of intellect and will». In today’s times, when marks of many tragedies persist and expand, to revisit Eduardo Lourenço’s poetic hermeneutics is not only intellectually urgent, it is an experience of «beauty and consolation» to resort to the renowned title of a series of television interviews with notable thinkers from the second part of the twentieth century. In our essay, we will highlight passages from Eduardo Lourenço’extensive political and aesthetic reflections on his redemptive and liberating idea of poetry written in the Portuguese language.

PT «Só a palavra poética é libertação do mundo» (2016: III,74) escreve Eduardo Lourenço em Tempo e Poesia, um dos seus ensaios mais icónicos, datado de 1959, entre os muitos que compôs sobre poesia e poetas portugueses – e que foram reunidos no espesso terceiro volume das suas obras completas. A perscrutação que Eduardo Lourenço empreende do pensamento poético desestabilizador de Pessoa – e.g. Pessoa Revisitado (1973) – e de autores laicos existencialistas – e.g. Situação do Existencialismo (1954) e A Dialéctica Trágica de Camus (1967) – e, sobretudo, da radicalidade filosófica do pensamento cristão de Kierkegaard – Sören Kierkegaard, Espião de Deus (1967) – encaminharam-no para uma estratégia de escrita predominantemente ensaística, para esse «lugar de interpelação pura sem resposta à vista» (I, 380), para esse recurso «em letra de forma», que ele desde cedo cultivou para responder e acudir a «tempos calamitosos, como os de Montaigne, precisamente em que duas ordens de certezas opostas e igualmente impessoais exigiam o sacrifício do intelecto e da vontade». Nestes nossos tempos em que persistem e se avolumam marcas de vária calamidade, regressar à hermenêutica poética de Eduardo Lourenço é, mais que uma tarefa intelectualmente urgente, uma experiência de «beleza e consolação» – para resgatarmos o título prestigioso de uma série de entrevistas televisivas a intelectuais que se destacaram na segunda metade do século XX. Na vasta reflexão de Eduardo Lourenço procuraremos realçar na nossa comunicação passagens representativas e decisivas sobre a sua conceção redentora e libertadora do pensar poético em língua portuguesa. EN «Only the poetic word liberates the world» (2016: III, 74), states Eduardo Lourenço in Time and Poetry, one of his most famous essays, dated 1959, among the many he wrote about poetry and Portuguese poets. Eduardo Lourenço’s examination both of Fernando Pessoa’s destabilising poetic thought – e.g. Pessoa Revisited (1973) – and lay existentialist authors – e.g. Situation of Existentialism (1954) Camus’s Tragic Dialecics (1967), Sören Kierkegaard, God’s Spy (1967) – led him towards a predominantly essayistic writing strategy, towards a place of pure interpellation developed from an early age to respond to «calamitous times, like those of Montaigne, precisely in which two orders of opposing and equally impersonal certainties demanded the sacrifice of intellect and will». In today’s times, when marks of many tragedies persist and expand, to revisit Eduardo Lourenço’s poetic hermeneutics is not only intellectually urgent, it is an experience of «beauty and consolation» to resort to the renowned title of a series of television interviews with notable thinkers from the second part of the twentieth century.In our essay, we will highlight passages from Eduardo Lourenço’s extensive political and aesthetic reflections on his redemptive and liberating idea of poetry written in the Portuguese language.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.21747/21836892/fil41a12