Poetry’s uncertain lens: Herberto Helder e Fernando Lemos

Abstract

Herberto Helder’s work contributes to think about the relations between poetry and other arts, such as photography and cinema. This article explores a possible way of these connections based on the poem “Retratíssimo ou narração de um homem depois de maio”, extending the reading of Helder’s text to a photographic work, the self-portrait “Eu poeta” by Fernando Lemos. Considering that Helder presents a “Retratoblíquo” in which he includes the expression “Julgo ser eu”, advocating the figurative uncertainty of the poem, this paper proposes an amplification of the obliquity of the poetic self-portrait to show that the self-portraying ambiguity may suggest the crossing of different artistic objects in the eyes of the reader