Perspectives on the “Land Without Evil” in Contemporary Poetry

Abstract

The phenomena of creation and destruction of the land are part of the complex Guarani cosmology, as recorded in As lendas da criação e destruição do mundo como fundamentos da religião dos Apapocúva-Guarani by the ethnologist Curt Nimuendaju. This cataclysmic view of the world led them to believe that the Earth we know today could once again be destroyed. Instead, there would be the Yvy marã'ey, an indestructible land whose location is unknown, which in part could explain the migratory behaviour of the Guarani. The term Yvy marã’ey, translated as “Land without evil”, seems to point to a utopian and messianic character, a theme that will be taken up by several contemporary poets, such as Sophia de Mello Breyner, Josely Vianna Baptista, and Waldo Motta. This article aims to discuss to what extent these poets also elaborate a critique of the present by staging a dialogue with indigenous cultures.

Keywords “the land without evil”; migration; eschatology; contemporary poetry