Reinventing The World Through Visual Poetry With Guillaume Apollinaire | Art of Saudade

Looking for a safe place in a world ravaged by wars, the Polish teenager Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary de Wąż-Kostrowicki (you get a cookie if you pronounce it right) was roaming around Europe until he finally settled in Paris in the early 20th century. Little did he know that more misery was yet to come. The charming French capital was the cradle of art back … Continue reading Reinventing The World Through Visual Poetry With Guillaume Apollinaire | Art of Saudade

10 Kurt Cobain Quotes About Life and Art | Art of Saudade

Kurt Cobain on Being Authentic “They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.” “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are” “I was tired of pretending that I was someone else just to get along with people, just for the sake of having friendships.” “I just hope I don’t become so blissful I … Continue reading 10 Kurt Cobain Quotes About Life and Art | Art of Saudade

Kurt Cobain’s Cry For Help | Why Hidden Messages Matter | Art of Saudade

Kurt. I was born four years after his death and I only got to discover his music when I was a teen.  Perfect timing. Kurt’s music was my personal introduction to rock music. I started as a passionate Nirvana fan, enjoyed the great Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and The Doors. Quite atypical for my age though. My love for rock music started when … Continue reading Kurt Cobain’s Cry For Help | Why Hidden Messages Matter | Art of Saudade

The Year of The Tiger: What Richard Parker Can Teach Us About Life | Art of Saudade

February 1 marks the start of the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Traditionally, the tiger has always been the symbol of bravery, wisdom, and strength.  You all know the story of a young Indian boy named Pi, stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. In his philosophical novel Life of Pi, which was later … Continue reading The Year of The Tiger: What Richard Parker Can Teach Us About Life | Art of Saudade

Dragons and Princesses: Rilke’s ideas of beauty and courage

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (1929) In his Letters to a Young Poet, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke transforms our traditional idea … Continue reading Dragons and Princesses: Rilke’s ideas of beauty and courage

Rumi’s Dance

Rumi’s poetry is based on Sufi mysticism, spirituality and most importantly, love. Sufis dance “like nobody’s watching, love like they’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on earth”, as a wise man once said. However, according to Sufism, there is indeed someone watching – God, and love can never hurt since there is no love without sacrifice. But Sufis dance like there is … Continue reading Rumi’s Dance

Imagine Sisyphus happy!

In his 1942 philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd. We all know life can be really weird sometimes, but making a whole philosophy out of it? Only Camus is able to do that. Born in Algeria in 1913, one of the best French philosophers Albert Camus lived in a world torn apart by two World Wars. He was … Continue reading Imagine Sisyphus happy!

Portuguese literature: #1 The Lusiads by Camoes

The Lusiads by Luís Vaz de Camões is one of the most important and most representative literary works ever written in Portuguese.  If English is the language of Shakespeare, French the language of Molière and Italian the language of Dante, Portuguese is the language of Camões. More than thousand verses compose what literary critics call “the Portuguese Iliad”. What makes this epic poem so special?  … Continue reading Portuguese literature: #1 The Lusiads by Camoes

Brazilian literature: #1 Jorge Amado – Captains of the Sands

There is something mysterious and intriguing about books that were burned under dictatorships, don’t you think?  Personally, knowing that a book was prohibited by certain authorities inspires me even more to discover it. Captains of the Sands is a novel written by the Brazilian author Jorge Amado in 1937. Amado was only 25 years old when he first published the story of the abandoned children … Continue reading Brazilian literature: #1 Jorge Amado – Captains of the Sands