2026 marked the centenary of the death of Camilo Pessanha (1867-1926), a Portuguese poet who resided in Macau, then a Portuguese colony. Portugal’s most significant symbolist poet and an influential figure in the Geração d’Orpheu group of modernist writers headed by Fernando Pessoa, Pessanha published only one book in his lifetime, his 1920 Clepsydra. In a conversation moderated by Matylda Figlerowicz, translator and researcher Adam Mahler discusses the significance of the centenary and Pessanha’s uneasy relationship to the former colonial enclave.
Sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature, the Rethinking Translation Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Consulate General of Portugal in Boston, and the Camões Institute for Cooperation and Language.
Founded as a graduate program in 1904 and joining with the undergraduate Literature Concentration in 2007, Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature operates at the crossroads of multilingualism, literary study, and media history.
© 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College
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