“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!'”

— Fernando Pessoa, book Mensagem

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) <br class="br">Message

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The blighter that is at the end of the sea On the pitch-black night raised itself flying; Round the vessel it flew th…" by Fernando Pessoa?

Fernando Pessoa288

Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publi… 1888–1935

Related quotes

“[The king] would assure me, a long time later, that he had said "I love you" to only three women. "One of them is you," he told me.”

Farah Pahlavi (1938) Empress of Iran

Page 94
Publications, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (2004)

“Two or three times in my life I discovered love.
Each time it seemed to solve everything.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"Sometimes", § 5
Red Bird (2008)
Context: Two or three times in my life I discovered love.
Each time it seemed to solve everything.
Each time it solved a great many things
but not everything.
Yet left me as grateful as if it had indeed, and
thoroughly, solved everything.

“It is time to be old,
To take in sail: -
The god of bounds,
Who sets to seas a shore,
Came to me in his fatal rounds,
And said: 'No more!”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Terminus http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=l&p=c&a=p&ID=20600&c=323 <br class="br">1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)

“Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away
like a shadow, dissolving like a dream.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 206–208 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus attempting to embrace his mother's spirit in the Underworld.
Compare Virgil, Aeneid, II. 792–793 (tr. C. Pitt):
: Thrice round her neck my eager arms I threw;
Thrice from my empty arms the phantom flew.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“The 'bus is English. When that is said, all is said. As a rule, any English thing is nineteen times as strong and twenty-three times as heavy as it needs to be. The 'bus fills these requirements.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (2010), p. 111

“Thanks for the times
That you've given me.
The memories are all in my mind.
And now that we've come
To the end of our rainbow,
There's something
I must say out loud.
You're once, twice
Three times a lady.”

Lionel Richie (1949) American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor

Three Times a Lady (1978).
Song lyrics, With the Commodores

“There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.”

Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter

Orlando Sentinel (6 November 1992)
Context: I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10. Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.

“Its three in the morning,' she noted with dismay. 'Do you think Simon’s all right?'
'I think he‘s weird, actually,' said Jace. 'Though that has little to do with time.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“I am who I am, and yes, I whipped Ali all three times.”

Joe Frazier (1944–2011) American boxer

Frazier referring to his fights with Muhammad Ali. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/sports/othersports/18frazier.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=a3509c26258f5380&ex=1318824000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

“Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:
Yes.
Yes.
No.
One time in high school.
Three times in my twenties.
Rocks no salt.
Yes.
Four.
Never. And how dare you!
I will take no further questions.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Fernando Pessoa288

Related quotes

Related topics