Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems

Fernando Pessoa, the most famous Portuguese poet, claimed to do nothing but “pretend and posture.” Does this remind us of Proust? They were contemporaries: Pessoa 1888- 1935; Proust 1871-1922. Pessoa was very likely gay and had a convoluted personality; multiple personalities, really, or at least he wrote as if he did. Three of Pessoa’s primary characters are distinguished by how they “feel:” one just “feels;” another adjusts his feelings to reality; a third modifies his feelings according to classical measures and rules. He created and abandoned styles, even being credited with a new type of symbolism called “Paulismo.” Pessoa gave each of his alternate egos physical descriptions, mannerisms and had them interact, converse, and write to each other, like a literary doll house. So in effect, his poems were written by “different people; thus the “and company” of the book’s title. So let’s see some samples of his (their?) stuff: Each cluster of lines is from a different poem.To be a poet is not my ambition,It’s my way of being aloneBut Spring isn’t even a thing:It’s a manner of speaking.It is night. It’s very dark. In a house far awayA light is shining in the window.I see it and feel human from head to toe.The Universe is not an idea of mine;My idea of the Universe is an idea of mine.Night doesn’t fall before my eyes;My idea of night falls before my eyes.Where there are roses we plant doubt.Most of the meaning we glean is our own, And forever not knowing, we ponder.Believe me, there’s no metaphysics on earth like chocolates,And all religions put together teach no more than the candy shop.I’m beginning to know myself. I don’t exist.I’m the gap between what I’d like to be and what others have made me,Or half of this gap, since there’s also life…And as for the mother who rocks a dead child in her arms---We all rock a dead child in our arms.I’m being watched, but where from?Which things that can’t see are looking at me?Who’s in everything, peering?From the mountain comes a songSaying that however muchThe soul may come to have,It will always be unhappy.Great poems!

Pessoa, like all of us, had strong emotions. What we would call moods--restlessness, sensuality, fearfulness, anger, expansiveness--he would call "heteronyms". His heteronyms were moods that had become embodied and endowed with a persona. This is unusual enough. He also invented complex biographies for each personality--they had names, histories, accomplishments, tastes, and definite capacities and limitations. Where this goes beyond unusual and enters into the extraordinary is where these personalities each reveal a remarkable gift for poetry. That the poetry can reflect the individual nature of each heteronym, while retaining a universal appeal, is an unparalleled feat. There is really nothing else like this. Richard Zenith has written a very good 30 page introduction to the poems in an effort to prepare the reader for the depth and breadth of the work that follows. A biographical sketch is provided, the major heteronyms are identified and characterized, and a philosophic assessment of Pessoa, both his influences and his impact, is attempted. But nothing will prepare you for reading a poem like The Tobacco Shop. Written by the alter ego Alvaro de Compos, it is brutally honest, wistful, bleak, and redemptive by turns. Compos, whose mission was "to feel all things in all ways", has fulfilled his ambition in this poem. He takes a blunt look at the emotional wreckage of his existence--life slams up against Fate, success slides into failure, genius leaks away into dream, fullness is revealed as emptiness and thus becomes fullness of an entirely different sort. It is this rare, magical, tentative, and all-inclusive human fullness that is Pessoa's gift. The gift is given repeatedly in this volume, and not just through the extravagant Compos.Highly recommended for poets, students of human nature, and those readers who have a deep interest in international literature.

This translation of Pessoa's poems is the work of an expert translator, a person learned in the literature of modern Portuguese. It is a treasure to own such a collection, in which the major ‘heteronyms’ of Pessoa are well represented - Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos.The second-hand copy was marked up which somewhat destroyed he pleasure of reading.

Some wonderful poems mixed in with some that are not quite as successful. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Symbolist literature movement in France/Portugal/Spain in the early 20th century.

Why is this not bilingual? How do you publish a translation of poetry without showing the original?? (Kindle version). Grossly disappointed.

A splendid selection, not greatly overlapping with other collections, nicely translated into unpretentious English greatly aiding comprehension. And all with a serious and useful introduction, easily the best I have read on Pessoa. Bravo!

A genius - more people in America should read him.

Interesting Portuguese poet. He writes from the perspective of four different personas. Which will be your favorite?