Francisco Otaviano

Francisco Otaviano de Almeida Rosa (26 June 1825 – 28 May 1889) was a Brazilian poet, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. He is famous for translating into Portuguese works by famous writers such as Horace, Catullus, Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Victor Hugo and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, mostly of them for the first time.

Francisco Otaviano
A photograph depicting Otaviano
A photograph depicting Otaviano
BornFrancisco Otaviano de Almeida Rosa
(1825-06-26)26 June 1825
Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil
Died28 May 1889(1889-05-28) (aged 62)
Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil
OccupationPoet, lawyer, politician, diplomat, journalist
NationalityBrazilian
Alma materUniversity of São Paulo
Literary movementRomanticism

He is the patron of the 13th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Life

Otaviano was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1825, to Otaviano Maria da Rosa, a doctor, and Joana Maria da Rosa. He entered the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo in 1841, graduating in 1845. Returning to Rio, he started to collaborate for newspapers such as Sentinela da Monarquia, the Official Gazette of the Empire of Brazil, Jornal do Commercio and Correio Mercantil.

From 1867 to 1869 he was the deputy (later senator) of the Empire of Brazil, and served as the negotiator of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance among Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.[1]

He died in 1889.

Works
Francisco Otaviano de Almeida Rosa
  • Inteligência do Ato Adicional (1857)
  • As Assembleias Provinciais (1869)
  • Cantos de Selma (1872)
  • Traduções e Poesias (1881)

His most famous poem is "Ilusões da vida" ("Illusions of the life").

Portuguese English

Quem passou pela vida em branca nuvem,
E em plácido repouso adormeceu;
Quem não sentiu o frio da desgraça;
Quem passou pela vida e não sofreu;
Foi espectro de homem, não foi homem —
Só passou pela vida, não viveu.

Who passed through the life in a white cloud,
And slept a peaceful sleep;
Who did not feel the cold disgrace;
Who passed through the life and did not suffer;
Was the specter of a man, but not a man —
He only passed through the life, but did not live it at all.

References
  1. "Biography of Francisco Otaviano". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
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