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Paul S Medus's avatar

Fernando Pessoa should be examined even if someone has only a passing interest in poetry. Closer inspection of Pessoa's poetry reveals and rewards illumination to a focused reader's mind. Thanks Poetic Outlaws for suggesting a collection of Pessoa's. "You can find this poem in one of my favorite all-time books of poetry— A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems"

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Chris's avatar

Reminds me of how transformational the right “she” can be for a man. The “she” in this poem helped him become one with nature after he saw himself a fool. Relatable...

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David's avatar

Love it

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Filipa Silva's avatar

I’m portuguese, and this is one of my favourite poems by Pessoa. I’m sorry if this seams underhanded but the translation you sent completely changes the intention of one of the most important verses in the poem. The forth verse in portuguese says: “Entre uma e outra coisa todos os dias são meus.” In a translation more intent on meaning than form you should read something along this line: between one [birth] and other thing [death] all days are mine.

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Pedro Hércules's avatar

Second verse of the second stanza should read as "I saw as a damned.", from the original "Vi como um danado.". Right? Instead of "I saw myself as a fool."

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Filipa Silva's avatar

Yes! The ideia is that he saw as much as possible. Even more than that.

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Joanne Mitchinson's avatar

Fool is 'damned if I do damned if I don't' mentality.

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man of aran's avatar

Interesting. ‘all days are mine’ is much stronger, imo.

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Filipa Silva's avatar

Exactly

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Joanne Mitchinson's avatar

I did read your meaning in the above translation as an English spoken reader.

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Castor das Montanhas's avatar

Não traduzam poesia, pá!

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Rogerio Cazelato's avatar

And to think that Richard Zenit wrote a ~1000-page biography on Pessoa, and when I finished, I felt there could have been another thousand pages.

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Rogerio Cazelato's avatar

Funny to read this. I’ve been reading a biography that has +1000 pages (I’m about 40%) and Pessoa is not that easy to define. It’s totally the opposite. An interesting person (Pessoa in Portuguese), and an extraordinary writer for sure.

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Joanne Mitchinson's avatar

I am a poetic outlaw

I know this from musings

Of an early age of being

Indian in the cowboy camp

Or vice versa.

Do I watch too many USA cowboy movies as a kid?

Jessie James is always an interesting character, whether male or female or other complex individuality, Alien these days even.

An outlaw at most!

Then again we also had super cool Japanese fiction to watch.

Monkey!!!!

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Jacob Laguerre's avatar

Just bought the book. Looking forward to diving into this. I've already read The Book of Disquiet and that alone was beyond mind-blowing.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

👌👌👌

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Sílvia's avatar

💙💙💙

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Bruce Isaacson's avatar

This is beautiful and great. I can feel the breeze blowing through it as he looks out at sunset.

For a prototypical outlaw take on this topic, try David Lerner's poem If I Die Tomorrow.

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Joey DeFilippis's avatar

Beautiful piece

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jacki bortoft's avatar

I’ve enjoyed Pessoa since I first encountered his writing a few years ago, definitely of his time, a singular phenomenologist of his world.

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May 16, 2023
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Poetic Outlaws's avatar

Thank you. Fernando Pessoa is a great one to start with. Czeslaw Milosz, Robert Bly, Stanley Kunitz are also great.

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