xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“In order to understand, I destroyed myself.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

A Factless Autobiography, Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 73
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Para compreender, destruí-me.

“I bear the wounds of all the battles I avoided.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

“My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tamboura I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

A literatura é a maneira mais agradável de ignorar a vida.
Variant: To write is to forget. Literature is the pleasantest way of ignoring life.
Source: The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 116

“I’ve dreamed a lot. I’m tired now from dreaming but not tired of dreaming. No one tires of dreaming, because to dream is to forget, and forgetting does not weigh on us, it is a dreamless sleep throughout which we remain awake. In dreams I have achieved everything.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“When all by myself, I can think of all kinds of clever remarks, quick comebacks to what no one said, and flashes of witty sociability with nobody. But all of this vanishes when I face someone in the flesh: I lose my intelligence, I can no longer speak, and after half an hour I just feel tired. Talking to people makes me feel like sleeping. Only my ghostly and imaginary friends, only the conversations I have in my dreams, are genuinely real and substantial.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

“I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I'm not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Repudiei sempre que me compreendessem. Ser compreendido é prostituir-se. Prefiro ser tomado a sério como o que não sou, ignorado humanamente, com decência e naturalidade.
Source: The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 128

“I wasn’t meant for reality, but life came and found me.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning in into slumber. The other arts make no such retreat— some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself.
This isn't the case with literature. Literature simulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

„A hírnév bármely embernek vagy bármely embercsoportnak az elismerése annyiban, amennyiben valamiképpen becses az emberi nemnek.”

Help us translate this quote

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) portugál költő

Hírnév és lángelme

„Egy nem létező település határvidéke vagyok, terjengős kommentár egy meg nem írt könyvhöz. Senki, de senki nem vagyok. Nem tudok érezni, nem tudok gondolkodni, nem tudok szeretni. Egy megírásra váró regény szereplője vagyok, s bár soha nem léteztem, tünékenyen és formátlanul bolyongok egy olyan valakinek az álmaiban, aki soha nem volt képes megformálni.”

Help us translate this quote

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) portugál költő

Forrás: Kétségek könyve, Íbisz, 1998.

“The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd: the longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world's existence. All these half-tones of the soul's consciousness create a raw landscape within us, a sun eternally setting on what we are.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Os sentimentos que mais doem, as emoções que mais pungem, são os que são absurdos – a ânsia de coisas impossíveis, precisamente porque são impossíveis, a saudade do que nunca houve, o desejo do que poderia ter sido, a mágoa de não ser outro, a insatisfação da existência do mundo. Todos estes meios tons da consciencia da alma criam em nós uma paisagem dolorida, um eterno sol-pôr do que somos.
The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 196

„A hírnév lehet esetleges vagy lényegi. Az az ember, akit különösen rejtélyes módon gyilkoltak meg, a halála révén lesz híressé. Ha jelentős esetről van szó, akkor a történelemben érdekes hullaként válik halhatatlanná.”

Help us translate this quote

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) portugál költő

Hírnév és lángelme

„A lelkem egy rejtett zenekar; nem tudom, milyen hangszereket, milyen hegedűhúrokat és hárfákat, dobokat és tamburákat szólaltatok meg és csattogtatok magamban. Csak a szimfóniát hallom.”

Help us translate this quote

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) portugál költő

„Vannak emberek, akikben az értelem az úr, ezek filozófusok vagy tudósok; vannak emberek, akikben az érzés az úr, ezek misztikusok és próféták, passzív vallásalapítók vagy átvett vallási rendszerek médiumai; vannak emberek, akikben az akarat az úr, és ezek államférfiak és katonák,…”

Help us translate this quote

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) portugál költő

Hírnév és lángelme

„Az általam elkerült csaták sebeit viselem.”