Poet, fiction writer, essayist, and university professor Nuno Júdice died this Sunday in Lisbon from an illness. He was 74.

Nuno Júdice was born in the Algarve in 1949, and in 2009 took over as director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Colóquio-Letras magazine.

He published his first book, “A Notação de Poema,” in 1972 and is one of the most important names in contemporary poetry.

He has received the most important national and international literary prizes, including Pen Clube (1985), the D. Dinis Prize from the Casa de Mateus Foundation (1990), the Portuguese Writers’ Association (1995), Bordalo from Casa da Imprensa (1999), Cesário Verde and Ana Hatherly (2003), and Fernando Namora (2004).

In 2013, he was awarded the XXII Queen Sofia Prize for Ibero-American Poetry (Spain); in 2104, the Víctor Sandoval Poets of the Latin World Poetry Prize (Mexico); in 2015, the Argana Poetry Prize from the Maison de la Poésie de Marrocos and the Inês de Castro Foundation Literary Prize – Consecration Tribute; and, in 2016, the El Ojo Crítico Iberoamericano from Radio Nacional de España.

The Presidency of the Republic has already mourned the death of Nuno Júdice, “a decisive author at a time of transition in Portuguese poetry, between the experimental tendencies of the 1960s and the more everyday tone of the 1980s and onwards”.

In a note published on the Presidency’s website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s office states that “even in the context of the 70s generation, to which he belonged, he was like no other, with his sometimes long, discursive, meditative verses, the late-romantic tone, the questions about the notion of poem, later the evocative, melancholic or ironic slant”.

The Belém Palace highlights Nuno Júdice as “one of the most prolific Portuguese poets”, one of the most translated and “most internationally recognized”.

“To his family, and especially to his wife, Manuela Júdice, the President of the Republic expresses his sincere sorrow and his gratitude and homage,” concludes Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The publisher, Dom Quixote, part of the Leya group, received the news of the poet’s death with “deep regret and heartfelt consternation.”

“This news has shaken all those who worked closely with Nuno Júdice, but certainly all his many readers and admirers. It undoubtedly leaves Portuguese literature and poetry poorer,” the publishing house said.
Nuno Júdice’s work spanned “all literary genres, from poetry to essays, from short stories to novels”, points out Dom Quixote, which recalls the last book published last year, “A Harvest of Silences”, “received by critics with great enthusiasm and acclaim”.

Quetzal Editores has also mourned Nuno Júdice’s death, saying he “occupies a unique place that will never be filled.”

“Today, we read one of his poems. We will always read one of your poems. Quetzal is sad – and accompanies the poet’s family in this endless farewell, remembering “life, its losses and gains, its / more than perfect imprecision”, says the publisher.

From various news sources in Portugal

Here are a few of his poems translated into English