[Ethics and the severina condition in the mangrove swamps of Capibaribe].
João Cabral de Melo Neto's poem "Morte e vida severina" focuses primarily on the satisfaction of human needs and on the condição severina--i.e., the poverty, hunger, joblessness, injustice, and early death that characterizes much of life in Northeast Brazil. In two episodes of the poem, human life is presented as a value ideal: during the dialog between the master carpenter and the protagonist Severino (a retirante, or migrant fleeing drought-stricken areas of the Northeast) and likewise during the birth of another Severino, on the banks of the Capibaribe River in Recife.
de Melo Filho
Djalma Agripino
DA
Núcleo de Saúde Pública (NUSP), Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Rua Nunes Machado, 119/603 - Soledade, 50050-590 Recife, PE, Brasil. djalmaf@truenet.com.br
D001938:Brazil; D004989:Ethics / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history*; D011203:Poverty / Q000266:history; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000266:history*