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Selected Poems (Penguin Modern Classics)

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In reading the poetry of Antonio Botto this reader discovered the name of another Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) about whom there is very little written. He was a prolific poet whose works show the influence of French symbolism, moving from saudosismo ('a nostalgic yearning for the good things of the past) has several points of contact with the movement known as "Integralismo Lusitano" (Portuguese Integrationalism), but its harking back to the past is more closely related to a lyrical attitude than to any sense of political action') transitioning to an obsession with consciousness and sensation. One of the reasons he is not better known lies in his proclivity to assume nom de plumes - 73 in fact, including his own name and the names Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, and Álvaro de Campos. Each of his assumed identities wrote in different emphases on topic and style as Pessoa did no believe in the 'integrated personality', preferring to create 'multiple personalities' for the expressions that fought within his mind.

One example of his poetry, written at times in Portuguese and at times in English, is as follows;

AUTOPSYCHOGRAPHY by Fernando Pessoa (as himself)

The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.

And those who read his words
Will feel in what he wrote
Neither of the pains he has
But just the one they don't.

And so around its track
This thing called the heart winds,
A little clockwork train
To entertain our minds.

In this collection, SELECTED POEMS, David Butler has provided translations where indicated and sets the poems as though they were a dialogue with each other - a fact that allows us to understand this strange but haunting poet in the manner in which he wrote. it is a remarkable achievement and provides an excellent introduction to the reader who is unfamiliar with the man Fernando Pessoa and his poetry. Grady Harp, July 11

Pesssoa is unique as a poet in that he generously scatters himself into the identities of three other people. The four heteronyms dominate his character.He searches for objective truth.
Here is an excerpt.
have no ambitions and no desires.
To be a poet is not my ambition,
It's my way of being alone.