Backlands (4 page)

The couple had two children, one called Solon, the other being the author’s namesake, Euclides da Cunha. While da Cunha was away in the Amazon, between December 1904 and January 1906, his wife was with her lover, Dilermando de Assis. Some months later, she gave birth to a son, Mauro, who died seven days later. Da Cunha recognized the child as part of the family. Ana gave birth to another child, who again was accepted by da Cunha. But the marriage quickly deteriorated, and by mid-1909 Ana had taken the kids to Dilermando’s house.

Sometime later, on the morning of August 15, an armed da Cunha entered Dilermando’s house and started shooting. His wife and the children took refuge in one of the rooms. Dilermando and his brother Dinorah confronted the angry husband. Da Cunha injured Dinorah in the spine, leaving him incapacitated forever. An injured Dilermando, who would become a champion gun shooter, killed da Cunha in self-defense. Dilermando would eventually commit suicide.

While da Cunha was being honored with a public funeral at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a legal trial, surrounded by media frenzy, took place against Dilermando. In the end, the accused was exonerated. Seven years later, in 1916, another tragic incident would occur when da Cunha’s son and namesake, by then training for a military career, shot Dilermando in public. And Dilermando, in self-defense, killed the second da Cunha. The survivor would tell the press that he carried in his body throughout life four bullets: two from the father and two more from the son.

At the time of his death, Euclides da Cunha, author of
Os sertões
, apparently was writing another book on the
sertões
called
Paraíso perdido
. The title translates into English as
Paradise Lost
. It is a fitting image to memorialize an author who sought to understand the rivers of blood on which modern Brazil was built.

ILAN STAVANS

Translator’s Preface

A project of this magnitude forges its own
travessia
, a word commonly used in novels about the backlands to indicate a crossing that has a spiritual as well as a physical dimension. I worked in a variety of settings, from Gainesville, Florida, to Salvador, Bahia, at the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Vienna, and then at the University of Illinois Center for Translation Studies in Urbana-Champaign. Each stage of the journey contributed to the translation in some way.

I wish to thank my husband, Terry McCoy, for his support and patience, freeing me to work on this project during every available hour. His recollection that his first reading of
Os sertões
as an undergraduate at DePauw University in Indiana was a gripping experience and made him want to learn more about Brazil convinced me that a retranslation of this book was a worthy project, especially if it could change lives and perspectives the way the book had for my husband. I thank my sister, Margaret E. Jaret, for accompanying me on the journey to Bahia and for finding the perfect place to work on the translation, at the Convento do Carmo across the street from the Euclides da Cunha Foundation, with its sweeping view of the great port of São Salvador. And thanks to my son, Alan Lowe, for patiently explaining the difference between strategy and tactics, for sharing with me his interest in military science and history, and for his help with the translation of military terminology.

Gregory Rabassa,
mestre
and mentor, taught me to read carefully and translate as if the author were writing the book in English. My appreciation goes to Ralph Della Cava for igniting my interest in the history of the Brazilian Northeast and its messianic movements. And Rainer Schulte convinced me of the importance of retranslation and how each new translation enriches the source text, the receiving language, and a new audience.

Throughout the process I’ve kept our late colleague Robert M. Levine in my heart and mind. It was his book
Vale of Tears: Revisiting the Canudos Massacre in Northeastern Brazil, 1893- 1897
that led me to a fuller understanding of both the historical events around the Canudos campaign and the Alfredo Bosi edition of
Os sertões
, which was the source text for this project.

I cannot think of a more gifted translator-scholar to pilot an undertaking like this than Ilan Stavans. I’ve appreciated the opportunity to work with him.

Paul Losch, librarian of the Latin American Collection at the University of Florida Libraries, offered enthusiastic help in locating source materials and patiently renewed, multiple times, the copy of the Alfredo Bosi edition I used as my source.

Finally, I’m gratified that my students at the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Illinois have shown me that while it’s impossible to teach translation, it’s indeed possible to transmit a passion for the art and craft of literary translation.

ELIZABETH LOWE

Chronology

1866
Euclides Rodrigues Pimenta da Cunha is born in Santa Rita do Rio Negro, then in the province of Rio de Janeiro, on January 20, into a family of Portuguese and Bahian extraction. The family moved to Rio de Janeiro in the mid-nineteenth century, attracted by the economic opportunities of the coffee boom in the Paraíba Valley. They never attained the riches of the coffee barons but earned a livelihood as hardworking small farmers. His father, Manuel Rodrigues Pimenta da Cunha, a Bahian from the area near Canudos, is a cultured man who fostered a love of reading in his son.

 

1869
His mother, Eudóxia Moreira da Cunha, dies when he is three. Da Cunha is raised by relatives and in boarding schools in Rio and Bahia.

 

1878
Lives in Rio with his uncle, Antônio Pimenta da Cunha.

 

1879
Attends the Colégio Anglo-Americano. Da Cunha will switch schools a number of times, attending Vitório da Costa and Meneses Vieira among others.

 

1883
Enrolls at the Colégio Aquino in Rio, where one of his teachers is the republican ideologist Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães, a follower of Auguste Comte and one of the leaders of the movement to depose the emperor and install the First Republic in 1889. Writes political commentary for the youth publication the
Democrat
.

 

1885
Enters the Escola Politécnica.

 

1886
Enters the military school of Praia Vermelha.

 

1888
Expelled from the school because of the famous incident on November 4, when during a military parade, he threw down his sword in front of the imperial minister of war. He goes to São Paulo and participates in the highly politicized café society of the day.

 

1889
Resumes studies at the Escola Politécnica in Rio, deciding on a career as a military engineer. When the republic is declared on November 15, he is reinstated in the army.

 

1890
Enrolls in the War College and completes a graduate course in Artillery and Engineering. Marries Ana Sólon Ribeiro, the daughter of General Frederico Sólon Ribeiro, one of the founders of the Brazilian Republic, who in 1889 was assigned the task of issuing Pedro II his exile orders. The marriage is unhappy.

 

1892
Finishes his education at the War College in Rio, with university degrees in mathematics, physical and natural sciences, and engineering, and the rank of first lieutenant. He starts his engineering career with an assignment on the Brazilian Central Railway, working on a stretch between São Paulo and Caçapava.

 

1894-95
First army assignment in Campanha, Minas Gerais, where he is engaged in public works, renovating a Catholic church facility for use by the army cavalry. Pursues interest in natural sciences. Moves to São Paulo to work as a civil engineer in the Department of Public Works, struggles with doubts about his military career, and aspires to a position as chair of mineralogy and geology at the Escola Politécnica in São Paulo but doesn’t succeed.

 

1896
Leaves the military to work as a civil engineer for the state of São Paulo. October: First news of an assault led by Antônio Conselheiro in the town of Canudos, in the state of Bahia, is made public.

 

1897
March: Publishes the first of two newspaper articles on the Canudos uprising called “A nossa Vendéia.” The second article appears in July. Accepts the invitation of
O Estado de São Paulo
to accompany the fourth expedition of the Canudos campaign as a war journalist embedded with the São Paulo Battalion. Leaves for Bahia on August 4. His field notes, published posthumously as
Diary of an Expedition
, become the basis for his book
Os sertões.
Stays in Canudos until theend of the Campaign. Da Cunha witnesses less than a month of the war.

 

1898
Begins writing
Os sertões.
Becomes an engineer of public works in São Paulo.

 

1899
Moves to São José do Rio Pardo in the state of São Paulo.

 

1900
Finishes
Os sertõe
s while supervising the reconstruction of a bridge in São José do Rio Pardo.

 

1902
Os sertões
is published, becoming an instant success. The volume joins a series of books already released about the Canudos campaign that constitute “a national atonement of sorts” for the atrocities by the army in subduing the uprising.

 

1903
Elected to Brazil’s Historical and Geographical Institute as well as the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

 

1904
Works for the Health Department of the city of Santos. He publishes a pamphlet denouncing the exploitation of the working class. Leaves for the Amazon at the invitation of the Ministry of the Exterior.

 

1905
Spends a year in the Amazon. The third edition of
Os sertões
is published.

 

1906
Returns to Rio. Writes a report for the Ministry of the Exterior titled
The Amazon: Land without History
. Works for the Brazilian government. Out-of-wedlock child called Mauro is born to Ana. The baby lives only seven days.

 

1907
Publishes two books:
Contrastes e confrontos
and
Peru versus Bolivia
. Second out-of-wedlock child is born.

 

1909
Successfully competes for the chair of logic at the Pedro II Institute and begins to teach at the prestigious school.
À margem da história,
an important book on Brazilian studies
,
is published posthumously in Portugal. Later that year, Euclides da Cunha dies from a gunshot wound inflicted by his wife’s lover, who later on claims to have shot him in self-defense. Da Cunha is said to have been writing another book on the backlands called
Paraíso perdido.

Timetable: The Canudos Campaign

October:
Arlindo Leoni, judge of the Juazeiro district, requests guarantees from the governor of Bahia for the safety of his city, which he claims is about to be attacked by Antônio Conselheiro and his
jagunços.

 

November 4:
General Sólon Ribeiro, commander of the Third Military District, responds to the request of the governor of Bahia for military assistance. He deploys a force of one hundred men and a surgeon under the command of Lieutenant Manoel da Silva Pires Ferreira.

 

November 7:
Troops leave for Juazeiro, arrive on the morning of the same day, and are stationed there until November 12.

 

November 12:
Troops leave for Uauá and arrive on November 19.

 

November 21:
Troops are attacked by
jagunços
at dawn. The insurgents lose 150 men and the army losses total 10 killed and 16 wounded. The surgeon goes insane. Troops retreat to Juazeiro.

 

November 25:
A contingent of eleven officers and two hundred men leave Bahia for Queimadas, under the command of Major Febrônio de Brito.

 

December:
With one hundred reinforcements from Bahia, troops leave for Monte Santo.

 

December 29:
Troops arrive in Monte Santo with 547 men, 14 officers, and 3 surgeons.

January 12:
Army troops leave for Canudos.

 

January 14:
Troops arrive at Lagem de Dentro. They resume the march and set up camp at a farm called Ipueiras.

 

January 15:
Troops move on to Penedo and camp at Mulungú.

 

January 17:
Troops set up camp at Vicar’s Farm. They run out of supplies.

 

January 18:
Crossing of Mount Cambaio. First battle: 4 dead, 20 wounded on the military side; 115
jagunços
killed. Camp on the Little Tablelands.

 

January 19:
Troops push into Canudos. Second battle: four killed, thirty wounded on military side; more than three hundred
jagunços
killed. Troops retreat and the
jagunços
jeer at them. Third battle at Bendegó de Baixo: twenty
jagunços
killed.

 

January 20:
Retreat to Monte Santo.

 

February 3:
Antônio Moreira César leaves Rio for Bahia to command the first regular expedition.

 

February 8:
First expedition arrives at Queimadas with thirteen hundred men.

 

February 20:
Troops arrive at Monte Santo.

 

February 21:
Expedition moves on to Canudos with 1,281 men.

 

March 2:
Arrival at Angico at 11:00 A.M. and Mount Favela at 1:00 P.M. Troops attack the settlement. Moreira César receives a fatal wound.