Quotes from book
Mensagem

Name: Mensagem
Author: Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa

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

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

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

“All beginnings are involuntary.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

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

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

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

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

“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.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

<p>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!</p><p>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.</p>
Poem "O Quinto Império" http://www.inverso.pt/Mensagem/Encoberto/QuintoImperio.htm, lines 1–10
Message

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

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

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

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

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

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

“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)
Message

“Oh Portugal, today you are fog…
The Hour has come!”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "Nevoeiro", verse 13-14
Message
Original: Ó Portugal, hoje és nevoeiro...
É a Hora!

“God gave the sea the danger and the abyss,
but it was in it that He mirrored the sky.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "Mar Português", Verses 11-12
Message
Original: Deus ao mar o perigo e o abismo deu,
Mas nele é que espelhou o céu.

“Here lies, on the small farthest beach,
the Captain of the End.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "Bartolomeu Dias", verses 1-2
Message
Original: Jaz aqui, na pequena praia extrema,
o Capitão do Fim.

“The Gods sell when they give.
Glory is paid for with disgrace.
Poor are the happy, for they are
Just what passes.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "O das quinas", first couples.
Message
Original: Os Deuses vendem quando dão.
Compra-se a glória com desgraça.
Ai dos felizes, porque são
Só o que passa!

“Against destiny I fulfilled my duty.
Uselessly? No, for I fulfilled it.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "D. Duarte", verses 5-6
Message
Original: Cumpri contra o Destino o meu dever.
Inutilmente? Não, porque o cumpri.

“Myth is the nothing that is everything.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "Ulisses", verse 1
Message
Original: O mito é o nada que é tudo.

“The sea with an end can be Greek or Roman:
the endless sea is Portuguese.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "Padrão", Versos 11-12
Message
Original: O mar com fim será grego ou romano:
O mar sem fim é português.

“These are Fortunate Islands,
These are lands without a place”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "As Ilhas Afortunadas", verses 11-12
Message
Original: São ilhas afortunadas,
São terras sem ter lugar

“Faithful to the word given and the idea had.
All else is up to God!”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "D. Pedro", verses 11-12
Message
Original: Fiel à palavra dada e à ideia tida.
Tudo o mais é com Deus!

“Clear in thinking, and clear in feeling,
and clear in wanting”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Poem "D. Pedro", verses 1-2
Message
Original: Claro em pensar, e claro no sentir,
e claro no querer

“Everything is worthwhile
if the soul is not small.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

Message
Original: Valeu a pena?
Tudo vale a pena
Se a alma não é pequena.
Poem "Mar Português", Verses 6-.
Context: Was it worthwhile?
Everything is worthwhile
if the soul is not small.