Fernando Pessoa Quotes page 5

“The blighter that is at the end of the sea
On the pitch-black night raised itself flying;
Round the vessel it flew three times,
Three times it flew creaking,
And said, 'Who dared pierce
Into my dens that I do not reveal,
My black ceilings of the end of the world?'
And the helmsman said, trembling,
'His Majesty King John the Second!'

'Whose sails are these then which I rub against?
Whose the keels I see and hear?'
Said the blighter, and rolled three times,
Three times it rolled filthy and bulky,
'Who attempts what is solely my power,
I who abide where no one ever could see me
And who drip the fears of the depthless sea?'
And the helmsman trembled, and said,
'His Majesty King John the Second!'

Three times he raised his hands from the helm,
Three times he had them rooted on the helm,
And said after trembling three times,
'Here at the helm I am more than myself:
I am a People who wants the sea that is yours;
And more than the blighter, that my soul fears
And rolls on the darkness of the end of the world,
Orders the will, that ties me at the helm,
Of His Majesty King John the Second!'”

Ibid., p. 62
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Não o prazer, não a glória, não o poder: a liberdade, unicamente a liberdade.

“I'm a keeper of [[sheep.
The sheep are my thoughts. ]]I'm a keeper of sheep.
The sheep are my thoughts
And each thought a sensation.
I think with my eyes and my ears
And with my hands and feet
And with my nose and mouth.To think a flower is to see and smell it,
And to eat a fruit is to know its meaning.That is why on a hot day
When I enjoy it so much I feel sad,
And I lie down in the grass
And close my warm eyes,
Then I feel my whole body lying down in reality,
I know the truth, and I'm happy.</p”

Poem "O Mostrengo" http://www.inverso.pt/Mensagem/MarPortugues/mostrengo.htm, lines 1–9, trans. Charles Eglington ( Listen to the poem on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Ihd-ECpYM) Message

“In today's life, the world belongs only to the stupid, the insensitive and the agitated. The right to live and triumph is now conquered almost by the same means by which you conquer internment in an asylum: the inability to think, amorality and hiperexcitation.”

Sou um guardador de rebanhos.
O rebanho é os meus pensamentos
E os meus pensamentos são todos sensações.
Penso com os olhos e com os ouvidos
E com as mãos e os pés
E com o nariz e a boca.
Pensar uma flor é vê-la e cheirá-la
E comer um fruto é saber-lhe o sentido.Por isso quando num dia de calor
Me sinto triste de gozá-lo tanto,
E me deito ao comprido na erva,
E fecho os olhos quentes,
Sinto todo o meu corpo deitado na realidade,
Sei a verdade e sou feliz.
Alberto Caeiro (heteronym), O Guardador de Rebanhos ("The Keeper of Sheep"), IX — in A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin, 2006)

“Love is essential. Sex, a mere accident.”

Ibid., p. 173
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Na vida de hoje, o mundo só pertence aos estúpidos, aos insensíveis e aos agitados. O direito a viver e a triunfar conquista-se hoje quase pelos mesmos processos por que se conquista o internamento num manicómio: a incapacidade de pensar, a amoralidade e a hiperexcitação.

“I sleep and I unsleep. On the other side of me, beyond where I lie down, the silence of the house touches infinity. I hear time falling, drop by drop, and no falling drop is heard falling.”

O amor é que é essencial.
O sexo é só um acidente.
Poem (5 April 1935), reported in Poesias inéditas (1930-1935), p. 192

“I have found out that reading is a slavish sort of dreaming. If I must dream, why not my own dreams?”

Ibid., p. 59
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Durmo e desdurmo.
Do outro lado de mim, lá para trás de onde jazo, o silêncio da casa toca no infinito. Oiço cair o tempo, gota a gota, e nenhuma gota que cai se ouve cair.

“I never go to where's a risk. I'm frightened of dangers down to boredom.”

Descobri que a leitura é uma forma servil de sonhar. Se tenho de sonhar, porque não sonhar os meus próprios sonhos?
Apontamentos pessoais ["Autobiographical Notes"] (1910)

“Who wants to go beyond the Bojador
Must go beyond pain.”

Ibid., p. 96
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Nunca vou para onde há risco. tenho medo a tédio dos perigos.

“Nature is the difference between the soul and God.”

Poem "Mar Português", Verses 9-10
Message
Original: Quem quer passar além do Bojador
Tem que passar além da dor.

“Who doesn't feel commands. He who only thinks what is required in order to win, wins.”

Ibid., p. 150
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A natureza é a diferença entre a alma e Deus.

“If we knew the truth, we'd see it; all else is system and outskirts.”

Ibid., p. 260
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Manda quem não sente. Vence quem pensa só o que precisa para vencer.

“It's in an inland sea that the river of my life ended.”

Ibid., p. 106
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Se conhecêssemos a verdade, vê-la-íamos; tudo o mais é sistema e arrabaldes.

“I will be what I want. But I will have to want what I'll be. Success is in having success, not conditions for success.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Foi num mar interior que o rio da minha vida findou.

“God wills, man dreams, the work is born.”

Ibid., p. 122
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Serei o que quiser. Mas tenho que querer o que for. O êxito está em ter êxito, e não em ter condições de êxito.

“Action men are the unvoluntary slaves of wise men.”

Poem "O Infante", verse 1.
Message
Original: Deus quer, o homem sonha, a obra nasce.

“The idea of any social obligation […] just the idea of it embarasses my thoughts for a day, and sometimes it's since the day before that I worry, and don't sleep well, and the real affair, when it happens, is absolutely insignificant and justifies nothing; and the case repeats itself and I never learn to learn.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet

“Knowing not to have illusions is absolutely necessary in order to have dreams.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A ideia de uma obrigação social qualquer [...] só essa ideia me estorva os pensamentos de um dia, e às vezes é desde a mesma véspera que me preocupo, e durmo mal, e o caso real, quando se dá, é absolutamente insignificante, não justifica nada; e o caso repete-se e eu não aprendo a aprender.

“Wasting time has an esthetics to it.”

Ibid., p. 276
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Saber não ter ilusões é absolutamente necessário para se poder ter sonhos.

“There's no greater tragedy than an equal intensity, in the same soul or the same man, of the intellectual sentiment and the moral sentiment. For a man to be utterly and absolutely moral, he has to be a bit stupid. For a man to be absolutely intellectual, he has to be a bit immoral.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Perder tempo comporta uma estética

“Every day things happen in the world that cannot be explained by any law of things we know. Every day they're mentioned and forgotten, and the same mystery that brought them takes them away, transforming their secret into oblivion. Such is the law by which things that can't be explained must be forgotten. The visible world goes on as usual in the broad daylight. Otherness watches us from the shadows.”

Ibid., p. 9
The Education of the Stoic

“Then a overflowing desire comes to me, absurd, of a sort of satanism before Satan, in that one day […] an escape out of God can be found and the deepest of us stops, I don't know how, to be a part of being or not being.”

A Factless Autobiography, number 424, trans. Richard Zenith, Penguin Classics edition
The Book of Disquiet

“The poet is a pretender.
He pretends so completely,
that he even pretends that it is pain
the pain he really feels.”

Os Grandes Trechos, s/n. Translated from the Portuguese Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006
The Book of Disquiet
Original: E então vem-me o desejo transbordante, absurdo, de uma espécie de satanismo que precedeu Satã, de que um dia [...] se encontre uma fuga para fora de Deus e o mais profundo de nós deixe, não sei como, de fazer parte do ser ou do não ser.

“Metaphysics is a consequence of not feeling very well.”

O poeta é um fingidor.
Finge tão completamente
Que chega a fingir que é dor
A dor que deveras sente.
"Autopsicografia" ["Autopsychography"], in Presença, No. 36 (November 1932)
Fernando Pessoa's most translated poem.
Richard Zenith's translation:
The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.

“Some sensations are sleeps that take up all the extent of the mind like a fog, don't let us think, don't let us act, don't let us be clearly.”

A metafísica é uma consequência de estar mal disposto.
Tabacaria (1928), trans. Richard Zenith

“Death is a bend in the road,
To die is to slip out of view.
If I listen, I hear your steps
Existing as I exist.

The earth is made of heaven.
Error has no nest.
No one has ever been lost.
All is truth and way.”

Ibid., p. 98
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Há sensações que são sonos, que ocupam como uma névoa toda a extensão do espírito, que não deixam pensar, que não deixam agir, que não deixam claramente ser.

“My curiosity sister of larks.”

A morte é a curva da estrada,
Morrer é só não ser visto.
Se escuto, eu te oiço a passada
Existir como eu existo.A terra é feita de céu.
A mentira não tem ninho.
Nunca ninguém se perdeu.
Tudo é verdade e caminho.
"A morte é a curva da estrada" (23 May 1932), in A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin, 2006)

“Thing thrown to a corner, rag fallen on the road, my ignoble being feigns itself in front of life.”

Ibid., p. 219
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A minha curiosidade irmã das cotovias

“I believe that saying a thing is to keep its virtues and take away its terror.”

Ibid., p. 64
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Coisa arrojada a um canto, trapo caído na estrada, meu ser ignóbil ante a vida finge-se.

“They bring me faith like a closed package in someone else's plate. They want me to accept it so that I don't open it.”

Ibid., p. 55
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Creio que dizer uma coisa é conservar-lhe a virtude e tirar-lhe o terror.

“Freedom is the possibility of isolation… If you can't live alone, you were born a slave.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Trazem-me a fé como um embrulho fechado numa salva alheia. Querem que o aceite para que não o abra.

“My head and the universe ache me.”

A liberdade é a possibilidade do isolamento... Se te é impossível viver só, nasceste escravo.
The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 283

“All beginnings are involuntary.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Doem-me a cabeça e o universo.

“Art consists in making others feel what we feel.”

Poem "O Conde D. Henrique", verse 1
Message
Original: Todo começo é involuntário.

“Given that we cannot know all the elements in a problem, we never can solve it.”

Ibid., p. 231
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A arte consiste em fazer os outros sentir o que nós sentimos.

“Oh salty sea, how much of your salt
are tears of Portugal!”

Ibid., p. 282
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Como nunca podemos conhecer todos os elementos de uma questão, nunca a podemos resolver.

“I never cared about whatever tragic event happened in China. It's faraway decoration, even if in blood and plague.”

Poem "Mar Português", Verses 1-2
Message
Original: Ó mar salgado, quanto do teu sal
São lágrimas de Portugal!

“Everything was asleep as if the universe was a mistake.”

Ibid., p. 164
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Nunca me pesou o que de trágico se passasse na China. É decoração longínqua, ainda que a sangue e peste.

“I never was but an isolated bon vivant, which is absurd; or a mystic bon vivant, which is an impossible thing.”

Ibid., p. 60
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Dormia tudo como se o universo fosse um erro.

“Pity him who lives at home
Happy with his life,
Without a dream, a flexing of wings,
To make him relinquish
Even the warmest ember of his hearth!

Pity him who is happy!
He lives because life lasts.
Nothing within him whispers
More than the primeval law:
That life leads to the grave.”

Ibid., p. 271
a possible play on Tertullian's: "credo quia absurdum" (I believe because it's absurd), "credo quia impossibilis est" (I believe because it's impossible).
Richard Zenith translates boémio as bohemian, not bon vivant.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Nunca fui mais que um boémio isolado, o que é um absurdo; ou um boémio místico, o que é uma coisa impossível.

“My homeland is the portuguese language.”

Original: Triste de quem vive em casa, Contente com o seu lar, Sem que um sonho, no erguer de asa, Faça até mais rubra a brasa Da lareira a abandonar!Triste de quem é feliz! Vive porque a vida dura. Nada na alma lhe diz Mais que a lição da raiz- Ter por vida a sepultura. Poem "O Quinto Império" http://www.inverso.pt/Mensagem/Encoberto/QuintoImperio.htm, lines 1–10 Message

“To think is to destroy. The very process of thought indicates it for the same thought, as thinking is decomposing.”

Ibid., p. 230
Translation variants:
My fatherland is the Portuguese language.
My nation is the Portuguese language.
My country is the Portuguese language.
My home is the Portuguese language.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Minha Pátria é a língua portuguesa.

“Art lies because it's social.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Pensar é destruir. O próprio processo do pensamento o indica para o mesmo pensamento, porque pensar é decompor.

“Our problem isn't that we're individualists. It's that our individualism is static rather than dynamic. We value what we think rather than what we do. We forget that we haven't done, or been, what we thought; that the first function of life is action, just as the first property of things is motion.”

Ibid., p. 232
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A arte mente porque é social

“These pages are not my confession; they’re my definition. And I feel, as I begin to write it, that I can write it with some semblance of truth.”

Ibid., p. 18.
The Education of the Stoic

“I belong to a generation - assuming that this generation includes others besides me - that lost its faith in the gods of the old religions as well as in the gods of modern nonreligions. I reject Jehova as I reject humanity.”

Ibid.
The Education of the Stoic

“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.”

Ibid., p. 14
The Education of the Stoic

“The sea is fulfilled, and the Empire fell apart.
Lord, Portugal must yet fulfill itself!”

Começo a conhecer-me. Não existo.
Sou o intervalo entre o que desejo ser e os outros me fizeram.
Álvaro de Campos (heteronym), "Começo a conhecer-me. Não existo.", in Fernando Pessoa & Co: Selected Poems, trans. Richard Zenith (Grove Press, 1998)

“Liberty is the possibility of isolation.”

Poem "O Infante", verses 11-12
Message
Original: Cumpriu-se o Mar, e o Império se desfez.
Senhor, falta cumprir-se Portugal!

“I say it because I don't believe.”

Ibid., p. 246
The Book of Disquiet
Original: A liberdade é a possibilidade do isolamento.