SOURCE: Martins, Maria Lúcia Milléo. “Elizabeth Bishop and Carlos Drummond de Andrade: ‘Opening of Tin Trunks and Violent Memories.’” In “In Worcester, Massachusetts”: Essays on Elizabeth Bishop, edited by Laura Jehn and Angela G. Dorenkamp, pp 225-34. Peter Lang, 1999.

In the following essay, Martins compares the themes of childhood and family in the work of Drummond and American poet Elizabeth Bishop, a well-respected translator of Drummond's work.

The quotation in the title is taken from “Travelling in the Family,” one of Elizabeth Bishop's first translations of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. As in “Infancy,” “Family Portrait,” and “The Table,” also translated by Bishop, Drummond invites us on a fascinating trip to the past, filled with memories of childhood and family portraits. Coincidentally, the period in which Bishop translates these poems, during the sixties, is also the time for her to rethink and write about her own origins...