The event to commemorate the work and character of Jorge de Sena,1 which took place in the São Carlos Theatre on July 10, 2008, had a title that from this distance could well be thought to have shown foresight: Jorge de Sena—a Return. To discuss the author of Signs of Fire we brought together a representative of our Foundation, in this instance its patron, along with some of the most highly qualified people in the field of Portuguese literary thought and criticism: Eduardo Lourenço, Vítor Aguiar e Silva, Jorge Fazenda Lourenço and António Mega Ferreira, whose presentations were moderated by the intelligent chairmanship of José António Pinto Ribeiro, our minister of culture. The auditorium was filled to the rafters, showing that this foresight, if that is indeed what it was, was shared with the several hundred people in attendance. Jorge Vaz de Carvalho read the poems aloud, while pianist António Rosado performed compositions on themes that Sena had addressed in his writing. No one who was there will ever forget the experience. At its conclusion, the Foundation gave each of the participants a set of keys with which to open the doors for Jorge de Sena’s definitive return to his home country. No, no, no question of foresight. Simply put, what has to be has to be, and has considerable force. The power of all those people, nearly a thousand of them, was united around one thought: may Jorge de Sena return, may he return now. And so he returned. I don’t know if we were made any richer. More conscious of our responsibilities, at least we can say that much. Few things could have pleased Jorge de Sena more.
Man proposes and circumstances dispose. After so many months spent savoring the long-anticipated journey to Mallorca, the meeting with my friends and the long-anticipated debate are to be thrown off course by the fact that some tests I have to undergo coincide with the date set for the meeting. Patience. There will be more Formentors, and I shall be at some of them. These words are directed at the participants, delegates and public attending the meeting. They express my thoughts on my imposed absence, while at the same time bearing witness to the importance of Formentor’s continuity, as much because of my longstanding commitment as in the hope that its resumption will succeed in devising fresh strategies in the field of cultural action. The free spirit of Formentor in the 1960s should be revived, and this is just the right moment to revive it. We all believe that it is now again time to raise our voices to assert free thought and—let not chaste ears be scandalized—fair dissent. This is the nub of it: the right to dissent is one of two rights missing from the Declaration of Human Rights. The other is the right to heresy. This was understood by the participants in the “old” Formentor, among whom, in addition to Carlos Barral, I can recall my colleague José Cardoso Pires, whose every effort was directed towards the necessary demystification of concepts and the clarification of the social role of the writer, independently of ideological or party-political ties. I salute them all, both friends and those unknown to me, including Perfecto Cuadrado, and also Juan Goytisolo to whom I wish to dedicate this short declaration with all my respect and admiration.
1 Jorge de Sena (1919–78), Portuguese poet, critic, essayist, novelist, translator. Exiled to Brazil from Portugal following an abortive revolutionary insurrection against Salazar’s dictatorship in 1959. There he became professor of Portuguese literature in the Faculty of Philosophy, Science and Letters at the University of Araraquara.
2 The Cap de Formentor is the northernmost peninsula of the Balearic Island of Mallorca and was once the home of the poet Villangomez Llobet. In 1929 Argentine art-lover Adan Diehl opened a luxurious hotel there. At first a home from home to Churchill and the Monaco royalty, in 1959 it became the location for the Club de Poetas, founded that year by author Camilo Jose Cela, together with publisher Carlos Barral. The latter created two $10,000 prizes, one for the most innovative work of literature and the Premio Formentor for a new work by an unpublished author. Henry Miller, Jean-Paul Sartre, Italo Calvino, Octavio Paz and—of course, José Saramago—were honored guests of the Club.