The Keeper of Sheep (O Guardador de Rebanhos) [Paperback]

Edwin Honig (Translator), Susan M. Brown (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

bilingual ed, poetry tr Edwin Honig & Susan Brown

Editorial Reviews

Review

[The heteronym] Caeiro is an absolute affirmation of existence and hence his words strike us as truths from another age, that age in which everything was one in the same. Sensible and untouchable present: we hardly name it and it evaporates! The mask of innocence which Caeiro turns to us is not that of wisdom: to be wise is to resign ourself to the knowledge that we are not innocent. Pessoa, who did know it, was nearer to wisdom. -- Octavio Paz

Review

"The mask of innocence which Pessoa turns to us is not that of wisdom: to be wise is to resign ourself to the knowledge that we are not innocent. Pessoa, who did know it, was nearer to wisdom." (Octavio Paz )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 137 pages
• Publisher: Sheep Meadow; Trans. from the Portuguese edition (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878818457
• ISBN-13: 978-1878818454
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,875,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Portuguese

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The purity of a simple heart, February 4, 2001

By 

Ricardo Eu (Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Keeper of Sheep (O Guardador de Rebanhos) (Paperback)

The most "ignorant" Pessoa heteromy Caeiro is a nature lover who doesn't care of anything else. For him, the senses, his senses, particulary the vision, are of great importance because it is they what give the possibility to Caeiro enjoy the beautiful nature that surrounds him, the nature he loves. In a set of astounding poems he explains his way of thinking, how nature is the most important thing of human existence, his idea that all should be seen, not thought. To think is to be sick with our eyes closed. Caeiro goes on, describing feelings and situations, maybe in a way a naive person with little culture would describe. In fact, this heteronym only has 4th degree and is a very simple person. But his filosofy, contrary to what looks like at first sight, is far from being simple, and Caeiro is far from being a "ignorant" human being. The more we read is poems more we see the greatness of his "simple" ideas. At the same time we ask ourselves about our own lives and the way we see the world. And at the end the question: "Isn't he right?..."