Customer Reviews

Poems of Fernando Pessoa

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fernando Pessoa is surely the most important 20th century Portuguese poet. The critic Harold Bloom considers Fernando Pessoa (along with Pablo Neruda) the "most representative" poet of the 20th century. This is a considerable feat if one considers other 20th century poets like: T.S. Eliot, Rilke, Valery, Yeats, Lorca etc.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez considers Neruda the "best poet of the 20th century, in any language." I highly admire Neruda, but Pessoa has done more for me, has influenced me much more than has Neruda. Pessoa's invention of several "selves" is a feat of originality without precedent.

Perhaps what most characterizes Pessoa is his strangeness. His strangeness is partly explained by his own life: Pessoa has been called "the man who never was." This is accurate: he is one of the most solitary literary geniuses of modern times. This sense of estrangement is all-pervasive in most of his poems.

The Noble Laureate Gao Xinjiang recently called Pessoa "the most profound poet of the 20th century." I concur with him. ---

Concerning this selection: I suggest the reader buy both the Zenith and Hong translations. It would be best ofcourse if one read his poetry in the original Portuguese. P.S: (Pessoa's complete poems can be found online, in both English, Spanish & Portuguese...)

Do yourselves a favour and read the unforgettable poems of the century's least acknowledged, but greatest, poet.

It's telling of the miserable state and status of the Portuguese -- "a brilliance lacking luster" -- that only an enlightened few are privileged to know (posthumously) that Pessoa ranks among the greatest writers of recent centuries. (Yes.) Become one of the privileged few to enter Pessoa's universe, and make sure it's initially through the translations of Honig and Brown.

Accessable modern poetry; depressing, surreal, with alot of sach-religious overtones.

This man is verbose and totally obsessed by his own emotional turmoil in everyday living.
It wouldn't be so bad except he really has little to say, and that he does in a completely
unremarkable way. Two thumbs down, ... unless you are a Cancer and share his condition.