xiv, 290 pages ; 22 cm

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) - a poet who lived most of his life in a furnished room in Lisbon, Portugal, and who died in obscurity there - has in recent years gained international recognition as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Pessoa was as much a creator of personas as he was of poetry, prose, and criticism. He wrote under numerous "heteronyms," or literary alter egos, and invented fully fleshed biographies for all of them. In the voices of these heteronyms, who supported and criticized each other's work in the margins of his drafts and in the literary journals of the time, Pessoa ranged widely over the possibilities of language. His poetry contains echoes of symbolist verse, Portuguese folk song, and futurist manifesto; it evokes both the breathtaking minimalism of the theory of relativity and the revolutionary exuberance of Leaves of Grass

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-290)

Introduction: The Drama and Dream of Fernando Pessoa -- Alberto Caeiro: The Unwitting Master -- I've never kept sheep -- My gaze is clear like a sunflower -- To not think of anything is metaphysics enough -- I'm a keeper of sheep -- Hello, keeper of sheep -- I'd rather be the dust of the road -- The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village -- My gaze, blue like the sky -- What we see of things are the things -- Yesterday afternoon a man from the cities -- Like a large blot of smudged fire -- Blessed be the same sun of other lands -- The mystery of things -- where is it? -- I see a butterfly go by -- The coach came down the road, and went on -- On an incredibly clear day -- Before I had you -- Perhaps those who are good at seeing are poor at feeling -- The shepherd in love lost his staff -- To see the fields and the river -- When Spring returns -- If I die young -- It is night. It's very dark. In a house far away -- The Universe is not an idea of mine -- The child who thinks about fairies and believes in them -- Slowly the field unrolls and shines golden -- Yesterday the preacher of truths (his truths) -- They spoke to me of people, and of humanity -- I lie down in the grass -- Dirty unknown child playing outside my door -- You who are a mystic see a meaning in all things -- Ah! They want a light that's better than the sun's -- That thing over there was more there than it is -- This morning I went out very early -- I can also make conjectures -- This may be the last day of my life -- Ricardo Reis: The Sad Epicurean -- Others narrate with lyres or harps -- The gods grant nothing more than life -- Don't clap your hands before beauty -- Ah, you believers in Christs and Marys -- On this day when the green fields -- Here, with no other Apollo than Apollo -- Above the truth reign the gods -- Let the gods -- Lips red from wine -- I prefer roses, my love, to the homeland -- Follow your destiny -- The bird alights, looking only to its alighting -- O morning that breaks without looking at me -- Obey the law, whether it's wrong or you are -- I want my verses to be like jewels -- Day after day life's the same life -- Who delights in the mind can delight in no destiny -- As if each kiss -- Your dead gods tell me nothing I need -- Fate frightens me, Lydia. Nothing is certain -- I devote my higher mind to the ardent -- My eyes see the fields, the fields -- Each man is a world, and as each fountain -- Not only wine but its oblivion I pour -- How great a sadness and bitterness -- Solemnly over the fertile land -- Where there are roses we plant doubt -- As long as I feel the full breeze in my hair -- What we feel, not what is felt -- I don't know if the love you give is love you have -- Want little: you'll have everything -- I was left in the world, all alone -- I tell with severity. I think what I feel -- I placidly wait for what I don't know -- Countless lives inhabit us -- Alvaro De Campos: The Jaded Sensationist -- I study myself but can't perceive -- Listen, Daisy. When I die, although -- Ah, the first minutes in cafes of new cities -- Time's Passage -- It was on one of my voyages -- Ah, when we set out to sea -- But it's not just the cadaver -- I leaned back in the deck chair and closed my eyes -- The Tobacco Shop -- Oporto-Style Tripe -- A Note in the Margin -- Deferral -- Sometimes I meditate -- Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone -- At long last ..., no doubt about it ... -- Pop -- I walk in the night of the suburban street -- Yes, I know it's all quite natural -- Streetcar Stop -- Birthday -- No! All I want is freedom -- I'd like to be able to like liking -- Reality -- I'm beginning to know myself. I don't exist -- Pack your bags for Nowhere at All -- I got off the train -- This old anguish -- Impassively -- On the eve of never departing -- Symbols? I'm sick of symbols -- The ancients invoked the Muses -- I don't know if the stars rule the world -- I've been thinking about nothing at all -- All love letters are -- Fernando Pessoa-himself: The Mask Behind the Man -- Ocean (Morning) -- God -- From Oblique Rain -- The wind is blowing too hard -- The Mummy -- The gods are happy -- In the light-footed march of heavy time -- Christmas -- By the moonlight, in the distance -- Waterfront -- Some Music -- I feel sorry for the stars -- I seem to be growing calm -- Sleep -- I contemplate the silent pond -- Like a uselessly full glass -- The sun shining over the field -- I don't know how many souls I have -- The soul with boundaries -- I'm sorry I don't respond -- Autopsychography -- I don't know how to be truly sad -- The clouds are dark -- Like an astonishing remnant -- If I think for more than a moment -- From the mountain comes a song -- This species of madness -- The wind in the darkness howls -- I have ideas and reasons -- With a smile and without haste -- Outside where the trees -- I hear in the night across the street -- Almost anonymous you smile -- This -- The day is quiet, quiet is the wind -- The sun rests unmoving -- The washwoman beats the laundry -- To travel! To change countries -- This great wavering between -- I have in me like a haze -- Dreams, systems, myths, ideals -- I divide what I know -- The child that laughs in the street -- Prince Henry the Navigator -- The Stone Pillar -- The Sea Monster -- Epitaph of Bartolomeu Dias -- Ferdinand Magellan -- Portuguese Sea -- Prayer

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