Table of Contents
About This New and Expanded Edition xi
Introduction: The Drama and Dream of Fernando Pessoa 1
Alberto Caeiro: The Unwitting Master 35
from The Keeper of Sheep 41
1 I've never kept sheep 43
2 My gaze is clear like a sunflower 46
5 To not think of anything is metaphysics enough 47
9 I'm a keeper of sheep 50
10 "Hello, keeper of sheep" 51
18 I'd rather be the dust of the road 52
20 The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village 53
22 As when a man opens his front door on a summer day 54
23 My gaze, blue like the sky 55
24 What we see of things are the things 56
32 Yesterday afternoon a man from the cities 57
37 Like a large blot of smudged fife 59
38 Blessed be the same sun of other lands 60
39 The mystery of things-where is it? 61
40 I see a butterfly go by 62
42 The coach came down the road, and went on 63
47 On an incredibly clear day 64
from The Shepherd in Love 65
Before I had you 67
Perhaps those who are good at seeing are poor at feeling 68
The shepherd in love lost his staff 69
from Uncollected Poems 71
When Spring returns 73
If I die young 74
It is night. It's very dark. In a distant house 76
On this whitely cloudy day I get so sad it almost scares me 77
The child who thinks about fairies and believes in fairies 79
Morning breaks. No: morning doesn't break 80
Slowly the field unrolls and shines golden 81
Yesterday the preacher of truths (his truths) 82
They spoke to me of people, and of humanity 83
I lie down in the grass 84
Dirty unknown child playing outside my door 85
You who are a mystic see a meaning in all things 86
Ah! They want a light that's better than the sun's 87
Yes: I exist inside my body 88
I like the sky because I don't believe it's infinite 89
To see the fields and the river 90
This morning I went out very early 91
I can also make conjectures 92
This may be the last day of my life 93
Ricardo Reis: The Sad Epicurean 95
from Odes 101
The gods grant nothing more than life 103
Don't clap your hands before beauty 104
Ah, you believers in Christs and Marys 105
On this day when the green fields 106
Here, with no other Apollo than Apollo 107
Above the truth reign the gods 108
Let the gods 109
Lips red from wine 111
I prefer roses, my love, to the homeland 112
Follow your destiny 113
I was never one who in love or in friendship 114
O morning that breaks without looking at me 115
At those times when, walking in the fields 116
Obey the law, whether it's wrong or you are 117
I want my verses to be like jewels 118
Day after day life's the same life 119
Your blithe and lovely youthfulness 120
Who values the mind can value no destiny 121
As if each kiss 122
Fate frightens me, Lydia. Nothing is certain 123
I devote my higher mind to the ardent 124
My eyes see the fields, the fields 125
Not only wine but its oblivion I pour 126
How much sadness and bitterness 127
Solemnly over the fertile land 128
As long as I feel the breeze ruffle my hair 129
The one I loved is not here, you say 130
Looking back, I see a different me 131
What we feel, not what is felt 132
I don't know if the love you give me is real 133
Want little: you'll have everything 134
I was left in the world,-all alone 135
No one in the vast religious jungle 136
Others narrate with lyres or harps 137
I tell with severity. I think what I feel 138
I placidly wait for what I don't know 139
Countless lives inhabit us 140
Álvaro De Campos: The Jaded Sensationist 141
Looking at myself, I can't believe 145
Listen, Daisy. When I die, although 146
Ah, the first minutes in cafes of new cities 147
Time's Passage 148
It was on one of my voyages 171
The best way to travel, after all, is to feel 173
I leaned back in the deck chair and closed my eyes 177
Ah, Margarida 178
The Tobacco Shop 179
Porto-Style Tripe 186
A Note in the Margin 187
Deferral 189
Sometimes I meditate 191
On the Last Page of a New Anthology 192
Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone 193
At long last … no doubt about it 194
Pop 195
I walk in the night of the suburban street 196
Yes, I know it's all quite natural 198
Streetcar Stop 200
Birthday 201
No! All 1 want is freedom 203
But it's not just the cadaver 204
I'd like to be able to like liking 205
Reality 206
I'm beginning to know myself. I don't exist 208
Pack your bags for nowhere at all 209
This old anguish 210
I got off the train 212
Music. Yes, music 213
Impassively 214
On the eve of never departing 215
Symbols? I'm sick of symbols 216
The ancients invoked the Muses 217
I don't know if the stars rule the world 218
I'm thinking about nothing at all 219
All love letters are 220
Fernando Pessoa-Himself: The Mask Behind the Man 221
from Songbook 227
Ocean. Morning. 229
The Other Love 230
At times I'm the god that lives in me 231
Slanting Rain (VI) 232
The wind is blowing too hard 234
Stations of the Cross (IV) 235
Stations of the Cross (XIII) 236
The Mummy 237
Song 242
Epigram 243
In the light-footed march of heavy time 244
Christmas 245
By the moonlight, in the distance 246
Dreams, systems, myths, ideals 247
Mother's Little Boy 248
This species of madness 249
Waterfront 250
Some Music 251
There's a song I hear people sing 252
I feel sony for the stars 253
I seem to be growing calm 254
I contemplate the silent pond 255
Like a uselessly hill glass 256
The sun shining over the field 257
I don't know how many souls I have 258
The soul with boundaries 259
I'm sorry I don't respond 261
Autopsychography 262
I don't know how to be truly sad 263
The clouds are dark 264
Like an astonishment in which 265
If I think for more than a moment 266
From the mountain comes a song 267
The wind in the darkness howls 268
With a smile and without haste 269
Outside where the trees 270
I hear in the night across the street 271
This 272
The day is quiet, quiet is the wind 273
The sun rests unmoving 274
The washwoman at the fountain 275
To travel! To change countries 276
Day by day we change into whom 277
Sleep 278
This great wavering between 279
I have in me like a haze 280
I divide what I know 281
When 1 feel tired and want to be someone 282
from Message 283
Prince Henry 285
The Stone Pillar 286
The Sea Monster 287
Ferdinand Magellan 288
Portuguese Sea 289
Prayer 290
Storm 291
Notes to the Introduction and the Poems 293
Bibliography 299