„Metrischer Pakt“. Reflexionen zur Metrik in portugiesischen und deutschen Gedichten

This paper defines “metrical pact” as the relationship between the use of metrical patterns in the poem on the part of the poet and the recognition of patterns on the part of the reader. To clarify this notion, we discuss concepts such as counterpoint, metrical tension, metrical frame, and metrical contract. As examples, some sonnets (by Francesco Petrarch, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Bruno Tolentino) and their translation into Portuguese and German as well as some verses of the poem “Tabacaria” by Álvaro de Campos/Fernando Pessoa and their translation by Paul Celan are analysed. In so doing, we want to debate the validity and possible use of the term in lyric research.