Entretien avec Virgilio Maia : mémoire marrane d’un poète brésilien

This article, which takes the form of a conversation between the author and the contemporary Brazilian poet, Virgilio Maia, emphasizes the richness of the poet’s inspiration, associating sources such as Bible with references to the « Sertao » region (including the town of Limœiro do Norte). Maia’s work, which lies somewhere between poetry, ethnography, heraldry and the plastic arts, reveals as much his neo-Christian cultural origins as his long-repressed Jewish heritage. During the dialogue, the poet’s speech reveals traces of a « dormant language », which gradually becomes the object of a quest : Judeo-Spanish. As the quest develops, traces of Hebrew also re-emerge, in the form of an alphabetical Hornbook.