On Cultural Memory
On Cultural Memory

Summary/Abstract: Just like in Portugal there is a tendency among poets to write verses for the fado, in Macedonia there is an increasing tendency to set to music the poems by great Macedonian poets. In both cases, this reveals the intention of poets to become popular through their poetry, to become accessible to the public (Res Publica(s) - public works), like music is, there is the intention to liberate poetry itself. This text will attempt to answer the following questions: Should we not recognize in the simple and compact Macedonian poem/song, as well as in the Portuguese fado, the avant-garde poetry of point zero which shapes the world and culture with the faith in the real world – in the original? Do the poems of the great poets such as Petre M. Andreevski from Macedonia and Vasco Graca Moura from Portugal (the recipient of the Golden Wreath of Poetry in the internationally acclaimed Struga Poetry Evenings) reveal the nostalgia for the original, as well as play around with the cracks in/from that original, building on this idea of the cultural memory of the simple and compact Macedonian poetry, i.e., the Portuguese fado?

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