This thesis concerns some aspects of the work of Ruy Cinnati, a poet whose singularity makes him an outstanding figure in the rich panorama of twentieth-century Portuguese poetry. His poems, as well as his scientific studies, testify to the author s interest and knowledge of environmental and anthropological issues, which are reflected in his political positions. His writings are expos s of the misuse of natural resources and the exploitation of human beings under Portuguese colonization, as well as of the countless interventions suffered by East Timor throughout its history. Thanks to his interdisciplinary scientific training (as a forest expert, an anthropologist and an agronomist) Ruy Cinatti was uniquely able to see man s relationship with the environment. These ideas are clearly present in the poems he dedicated to Timor. In his many surveying trips, Cinatti intensified his relations with the Timorese. This was made possible by his ability to transcend the role of the Portuguese colonizer and to get close to the Timorese to the point of being accepted by the natives as a brother witness the blood pact he celebrated with two Timorese chiefs. His interdisciplinary and sensitive worldview makes his poetic and scientific work rather special and unique, so that Ruy Cinatti has become a fundamental name in Portuguese literature.