Literatura de Cordel

LITERATURA DE CORDEL
I’m really not sure how to go about this as I am no wondergust when it comes down to fictional literature and its critical offspring. As a result, it would merely be pompous, pretentious or simply inauthentic if I were to draw wideball comparisons between different schools of prose or poetry. However, many of us find songs and poetry somewhat more accessible or less daunting than the overwhelming realm of a novel or series of novels.God bless them, novel writers, as we sure do like translating their toils. In all honesty, I prefer a good novel over a lazy weekend than a collection of poems, no-matter how carefully selected and sequenced the poems are. In many ways, although this may appear to be an unforeseen arrogance, I think musicians should be serving poets and the singers, well, I guess they’re more bearable if they can play an instrument or two. As I don’t play anything more than discs, I might be considered as a musical neotooltwirler. However, as I delvea little more into lyric-writing, poetry with melody, I cannot avoid hovering over the knowledge that musicians have an enormous luxury of being able to lounge in the luxury that there are oceans of lyrics just waiting for music and performance artists to set the words alive from the screens the lyrics are being read from.
Without writing too many further tangentially distracting lines, those of us who have discovered ‘literatura de cordel’ and made sufficient time and energy to stroll with it, have been endowed with a gemstone grounding in a beautiful form that can only enchant readers, singers and performers alike. If you don’t know or learn Portuguese, whether it is African, Asian, South American or European makes little difference. Cordel, as it is more usually called, has everything that modern poetry might. Imagine hiphop, limericks, prose and any other accessible, easy to consume product and then add cultural heritage, a tropical climate and an adaptability to themes of all kinds.
In structure, most cordel poems or songs are between 20 to 80 verses, normally six line verses but not necessarily. Each verse follows a rhyming pattern and if read or sung aloud there is an additional rhythmic variation that many cordel writers add to their product. Like an extensive rap without the electronica, a carnaval samba without the drums and repetition or a short epic in their own right, each poem covers a specific character, pair or group of characters and more regularly an historical thread, era or event. Some writers tackle awkward social phenomena, like the Beatles, Zeca Pagodinho, political revolution or individual idolatry and heroism. With nearly all the examples of cordel I’ve read, I’ve been unable to repress open, loud, hearty laughter. The result is an infectious rhythmic and possibly melodic artform that holds most readers in trance to the completion of each ‘book’. I’ve written book because they are sold as paperback leaflets, with each poem being a short story in its own right. Each writer has his own method of publication and this commercial aspect has led to its regionalism being dissipated.
Without digging too deep on cordel’s history, it is a traditional northeastern cultural dominion that has however, spread back beyond its hardcore, Alagoas and its closest neighbours to most of coastal Brasil. It has a stronghold in central Rio de Janeiro as it did originally, when it arrived from Portugal. The largest known collection is in a small specialist bookshop in Santa Tereza just up the hill from the world-famous Lapa, with its charming arched tram bridge and bohemian reputation. Knowing a little of coastal Brasil is useful in understanding some of the more intimately written pieces with a certain depth of characterisation in historic northeasterners, like Lampiao, os cangaceiros, Brasil’s first president of the republic or any number of regular personae who, whether based on real northeasterners or from the imagination of the writers’ experiences, certainly capture the essence of what it is to live and be part of northeastern community living. For example, in “Matuto Zé Cara” by Jorge Calheiros, resident in Maceio. With a short extract and a little knowledge of Iberian languages you’ll probably appreciate this,
Ò grande deus soberano
Reforçai a minha mente
Pra mim narrar com firmeza
Uma historia descente
O senhor me ajudando
Termino rapidamente

Um homen pra ser poeta
É só deus lhe da o dom
Pode ser preto ou mulato
Ser gelago até marrom
Até mesmo na areia
Escrevendo fica bom

And that is just his prelude to the story of Matuto Zé Cará. For most of us who keep up with Brasil’s current and traditional cultural phenomena, “A fantástica história de Zeca Pagodinho, o disco voador e o extraterrestre” is a cackle from a head cockrel at the edge of the enormous cauldron, also known as samba. Victor Alvim Itahim Garcia has the edge to cut the froth from the ever popular romanticism, pagode, at the periphery of the world reknowned pandemonium that samba really always should be. Without quoting again, he simply situates Zeca right where he sometimes finds himself, the butt of really good humour. One of the most prodigious cordel writers is J.Victtor, who seems capable of covering a never-ending diversity of themes and topics. There are no barriers or frontiers when Victtor is putting pen to paper. Here’s another reason to learn at least some portuguese, before coming to South America. From his slender semblence of verses on “Os Beatles”,
As artes às vezes são
por muitos, classificadas
por grau de dificuldade
e nas listas anotadas
a música é a primeira
de todas as artes criadas.

Música traz alegria,
paz e serenidade,
unindo povos, pregando
a mais fraterna amizade,
transpondo fronteiras e
trazendo boa irmandade.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney
George Harrison e Ringo Starr
formarem a maior banda
de rock para tocar,
revolucionando o modo
de compor e de cantar.

Why not reflect on your own cultural heritage? Is there a mass popular cultural phenomenon that can share this shelf? Consider if limericks are really comparable or if hiphop has the merits to be carelessly plonked alongside cordel. We know cordel began in Portugal in the eighteenth century but it has certainly taken shape and form in Brazil. It has been said that cordel has also set roots in Africa, specifically in Angola, though I cannot confirm this, having never read African cordel. Goodness knows, there may be cordel writers residing in Goa, Macau or Timor L’Este but you can be sure, it is alive and well in South America’s Brasil. If you take a step back then maybe you’ll find some more grey matter between these black and white lines, just challenging enough to set you a hobby for your accumulated freetime meanderings. On sc reen, intellectualisation isn’t what this is but keeping it light and simple, cordel is possibly the hors d’oevre that you really should snack on to begin learning Portuguese.