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Alvaro de Campos, solemn investigator of useless things, at your service. These are the musings of Fernando Pessoa, a possible figment of my imagination. Or the other way around. With musical interludes.

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i12bent: Fernando Pessoa, the great Portuguese Modernist, who invented multiple poetic personae, was born June 13, 1888 (d. 1935)… Fernando Pessoa: I don’t know how many souls I have.I’ve changed at every moment.I always feel like a stranger.I’ve never seen or found myself.From being so much, I have only soul.A man who has soul has no calm.A man who sees is just what he sees.A man who feels is not who he is.Attentive to what I am and see,I become them and stop being I.Each of my dreams and each desireBelongs to whoever had it, not me.I am my own landscape,I watch myself journey -Various, mobile, and alone. Here where I am I can’t feel myself.That’s why I read, as a stranger,My being as if it were pages.Not knowing what will comeAnd forgetting what has passed,I note in the margin of my reading What I thought I felt. Rereading, I wonder: “Was that me?”God knows, because he wrote it. © Translation: 1998, Richard ZenithFrom: Fernando Pessoa & Co. – Selected PoemsPublisher: Grove Press, New York, 1998

i12bent:

Fernando Pessoa, the great Portuguese Modernist, who invented multiple poetic personae, was born June 13, 1888 (d. 1935)…

Fernando Pessoa:

I don’t know how many souls I have.
I’ve changed at every moment.
I always feel like a stranger.
I’ve never seen or found myself.
From being so much, I have only soul.
A man who has soul has no calm.
A man who sees is just what he sees.
A man who feels is not who he is.

Attentive to what I am and see,
I become them and stop being I.
Each of my dreams and each desire
Belongs to whoever had it, not me.
I am my own landscape,
I watch myself journey -
Various, mobile, and alone.
Here where I am I can’t feel myself.

That’s why I read, as a stranger,
My being as if it were pages.
Not knowing what will come
And forgetting what has passed,
I note in the margin of my reading
What I thought I felt.
Rereading, I wonder: “Was that me?”
God knows, because he wrote it.

© Translation: 1998, Richard Zenith
From: Fernando Pessoa & Co. – Selected Poems
Publisher: Grove Press, New York, 1998

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    (Thank you again i12bent)
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    Fernando Pessoa, the great Portuguese Modernist, who invented multiple poetic personae, was born June 13, 1888 (d....
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    my favorite poets (also I am...;)—Gramo-te `a brava Portugal!)
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