“Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone!
To be remiss is to be positively out in the country!
What a refuge it is to be completely unreliable!
I can breathe easier now that the appointments are behind me.
I missed them all, through deliberate negligence,
Having waited for the urge to go, which I knew wouldn't come.
I'm free, and against organised, clothed society.
I'm naked and plunge into the water of my imagination.
It's too late to be at either of the two meetings where I should have been at the same time,
Deliberately at the same time…
No matter, I'll stay here dreaming verses and smiling in italics.
This spectator aspect of life is so amusing!
I can't even light the next cigarette… If it's an action,
It can wait for me, along with the others, in the non-meeting called life.”

— Fernando Pessoa

Ah a frescura na face de não cumprir um dever!
Faltar é positivamente estar no campo!
Que refúgio o não se poder ter confiança em nós!
Respiro melhor agora que passaram as horas dos encontros,
Faltei a todos, com uma deliberação do desleixo,
Fiquei esperando a vontade de ir para lá, que'eu saberia que não vinha.
Sou livre, contra a sociedade organizada e vestida.
Estou nu, e mergulho na água da minha imaginação.
E tarde para eu estar em qualquer dos dois pontos onde estaria à mesma hora,
Deliberadamente à mesma hora...
Está bem, ficarei aqui sonhando versos e sorrindo em itálico.
É tão engraçada esta parte assistente da vida!
Até não consigo acender o cigarro seguinte... Se é um gesto,
Fique com os outros, que me esperam, no desencontro que é a vida.
Álvaro de Campos (heteronym), "A Frescura" (1929), in Fernando Pessoa & Co: Selected Poems, trans. Richard Zenith (Grove Press, 1998)

Original

Ah a frescura na face de não cumprir um dever! Faltar é positivamente estar no campo! Que refúgio o não se poder ter confiança em nós! Respiro melhor agora que passaram as horas dos encontros, Faltei a todos, com uma deliberação do desleixo, Fiquei esperando a vontade de ir para lá, que'eu saberia que não vinha. Sou livre, contra a sociedade organizada e vestida. Estou nu, e mergulho na água da minha imaginação. E tarde para eu estar em qualquer dos dois pontos onde estaria à mesma hora, Deliberadamente à mesma hora… Está bem, ficarei aqui sonhando versos e sorrindo em itálico. É tão engraçada esta parte assistente da vida! Até não consigo acender o cigarro seguinte… Se é um gesto, Fique com os outros, que me esperam, no desencontro que é a vida.

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Fernando Pessoa 288

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

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