Shatered Words

It was certainly an endless nightmare trying for the very first time to bring some poetry alive in English, specially considering my notorious lack of control on the language, and adding the "poem" surrealist nature, mixing concepts impressions and sounds, in a sort of spell of the soul...
Indulgence is what I ask of the readers for such a pretentious attempt !...:sarcastic:

Another option would be to provide us with some poetry in your first language, and then also an English translation. Of course we might need some pronunciation tips. Poetry does seem to be the most difficult thing to translate. Or did you write the above in English to begin with?

For best or for worse it was straight in English...

Translating some of my poetry would seem nearly impossible to me...its fairly complicated even in Portuguese with tendency to bring on neologisms and transmutations between subject and objects adjectives into verbs ( to create dynamic) and so on...don?t get me wrong, I was a long time ago an A+ student in Literature, but still a complicated one...so my poor poetry should be no different !

Nevertheless I will bring some passages already translated from my favourite poet Fernando Pessoa from his "Heteronim" (another self) Bernardo Soares in the Book of Disquiet ! ( an Absolute must have for anyone who Loves Existentialist Poetry ) One of the ten best authors from the 20 century, translated in almost every language there is, I assure you that you wont regret it. Look for it in a book store !

I was into poetry long before philosophy. Do you like Eliot, Yeats, Keats? Has Pessoa been well-translated into English? I find most translations of poetry disappointing. Marlowe did Ovid well. Pound did some Italians well. I say this without having read the originals. So I can't talk of accuracy but only of the poetic talent of translators. My last stretch as a poet was writing lyrics for a en experimental rock band I fronted in younger crazier days. But song lyrics must be simpler than written poetry to work well, yes?

"You're biting off your lips, and chewing on your tongue. Too young. High strung."

The Book of Disquiet

Heteronym: Bernardo Soares, Auxiliary book-keeper in Lisbon and a perfectionist without a real life. He lived in a small apartment in the Rua dos Douradores, and all he had in life was "a few accounting books and the gift of dreaming". One afternoon he was allowed to leave the office earlier to run a personal errand right there in Lisbon; the errand being completed early, he found that given the different hours Lisbon was a strange town he was unfamiliar with, and went back to the office, to the surprise of his colleagues. (Where a portuguese original quote exists, the translation into english was informal.)

• Whether or not they exist, we're slaves to the gods.
  
  • "A Factless Autobiography", number 21, (Trans. Richard Zenith, Penguin Classics edition)
    
  
  
  

• ... And I, who timidly hate life, fear death with fascination. I fear this nothingness that could be something else, and I fear it as nothing and as something else simultaneously, as if gross horror and non-existence could coincide there, as if my coffin could entrap the eternal breathing of a bodily soul, as if immortality could be tormented by confinement. The idea of hell, which only a satanic soul could have invented seems to me to have derived from this sort of confusion - a mixture of two different fears that contradict and contaminate each other.
  
  • "A Factless Autobiography", number 168, (Trans. Richard Zenith, Penguin Classics edition)
    
  
  
  

• I think of life as an inn where I have to stay until the abyss coach arrives. I don't know where it will take me, for I know nothing.
  
  • Original: Considero a vida uma estalagem onde tenho que me demorar at? que chegue a dilig?ncia do abismo. N?o sei onde ela me levar?, porque n?o sei nada.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 40)
    
  
  
  

• Every day things happen in the world that cannot be explained by any law of things we know. Every day they're mentioned and forgotten, and the same mystery that brought them takes them away, transforming their secret into oblivion. Such is the law by which things that can't be explained must be forgotten. The visible world goes on as usual in the broad daylight. Otherness watches us from the shadows.
  
  • "A Factless Autobiography", number 424, (Trans. Richard Zenith, Penguin Classics edition)
    
  
  
  

• Having touched Christ's feet is not an excuse for punctuation mistakes.
  
  • Original: O ter tocado os p?s de Cristo n?o ? desculpa para defeitos de pontua??o.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p 229)
    
  
  
  

• Strength without agility is a mere mass.
  
  • Original: A for?a sem a destreza ? uma simples massa.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p 229)
    
  
  
  

• There are those that even God exploits, and they are prophets and saints in the vacuousness of the world.
  
  • Original: H? os que Deus mesmo explora, e s?o profetas e santos na vacuidade do mundo.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 45)
    
  
  
  

• I come closer to my desk as to a bulwark against life.
  
  • Original: Achego-me ? minha secret?ria como a um baluarte contra a vida.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 45)
    
  
  
  

• We are two abysses -- a well staring at the sky.
  
  • Original: Somos dois abismos -- um po?o fitando o c?u.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 48)
    
  
  
  

• A tedium that includes only the anticipation of more tedium; the regret, now, of tomorrow regretting having regretted today.
  
  • Original: Um t?dio que inclui a antecipa??o s? de mais t?dio; a pena, j?, de amanh? ter pena de ter tido pena hoje.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 50)
    
  
  
  

• The train slows down, it's the Cais do Sodr?. I arrived to Lisbon, but not to a conclusion.
  
  • Original: O comboio abranda, ? o Cais do Sodr?. Cheguei a Lisboa, mas n?o a uma conclus?o.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 50)
    
  
  
  

• We become sphynxes, though fake, up to the point we no longer know who we are.
  
  • Original: Tornamo-nos esfinges, ainda que falsas, at? chegarmos ao ponto de n?o sabermos quem somos.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 52)
    
  
  
  

• Fraternity has subtleties.
  
  • Original: A fraternidade tem subtilezas.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 53)
    
  
  
  

• I believe that saying a thing is to keep its virtues and take away its terror.
  
  • Original: Creio que dizer uma coisa ? conservar-lhe a virtude e tirar-lhe o terror.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 55)
    
  
  
  

• I have now so many fundamental thoughts, so many really metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write more, not to think more, but allow the fever of saying to make me sleepy, and fondle, with closed eyes, as if to a cat, all that I could have said.
  
  • Original: Tenho neste momento tantos pensamentos fundamentais, tantas coisas verdadeiramente metaf?sicas para dizer, que me canso de repente, e decido n?o escrever mais, n?o pensar mais, mas deixar que a febre de dizer me d? sono, e eu fa?a festas, como a um gato, a tudo quanto poderia ter dito.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 56)
    
  
  
  

• I'm all those things, even though I don't want to, in the confuse depth of my fatal sensibility.
  
  • Original: Sou todas essa coisas, embora o n?o queira, no fundo confuso da minha sensibilidade fatal.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 58)
    
  
  
  

• I sleep and I unsleep. On the other side of me, beyond where I lie down, the silence of the house touches infinity. I hear time falling, drop by drop, and no falling drop is heard falling.
  
  • Original: Durmo e desdurmo. / Do outro lado de mim, l? para tr?s de onde jazo, o sil?ncio da casa toca no infinito. Oi?o cair o tempo, gota a gota, e nenhuma gota que cai se ouve cair.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 59)
    
  
  
  

• The house clock, place certain there at the bottom of things, strikes the half hour dry and null. All is so much, all is so deep, all is so dark and cold!
  
  • Original: O rel?gio da casa, lugar certo l? ao fundo das coisas, soa a meia hora seca e nula. Tudo ? tanto, tudo ? t?o fundo, tudo ? t?o negro e frio!
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 60)
    
  
  
  

• I pass times, I pass silences, formless worlds pass me by.
  
  • Original: Paso tempos, passo sil?ncios, mudos sem forma passam por mim.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 60)
    
  
  
  

• Everything was asleep as if the universe was a mistake.
  
  • Original: Dormia tudo como se o universo fosse um erro.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 60)
    
  
  
  

• Not pleasure, not glory, not power: freedom, only freedom.
  
  • Original: N?o o prazer, n?o a gl?ria, n?o o poder: a liberdade, unicamente a liberdade.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 62)
    
  
  
  

• Changing from the ghosts of faith to the spectres of reason is just changing cells.
  
  • Original: Passar dos fantasmas da f? para os espectros da raz?o ? somente ser mudado de cela.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 62)
    
  
  
  

• Thing thrown to a corner, rag fallen on the road, my ignoble being feigns itself in front of life.
  
  • Original: Coisa arrojada a um canto, trapo ca?do na estrada, meu ser ign?bil ante a vida finge-se.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 64)
    
  
  
  

• It was just a moment, and I saw myself. Then I no longer could say what I was.
  
  • Original: Foi s? um momento, e vi-me. Depois j? n?o sei sequer dizer o que fui.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 66)
    
  
  
  

• As we wash our body so we should wash destiny, change life as we change clothes.
  
  • Original: Assim como lavamos o corpo dev?amos lavar o destino, mudar de vida como mudamos de roupa.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 68)
    
  
  
  

• There's a tiredness of abstract inteligence, and it's the most horrible of tirednesses. It doesn't weight on you like the tiredness of the body, nor does it worry you like the tiredness of knowledge and emotion. It's a weightiness of the conscience of the world, an inability of the soul to breathe.
  
  • Original: H? um cansa?o da intelig?ncia abstracta, e ? o mais horroroso dos cansa?os. N?o pesa como o cansa?o do corpo, nem inquieta como o cansa?o do conhecimento e da emo??o. ? um peso da consci?ncia do mundo, um n?o poder respirar da alma.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 69)
    
  
  
  

• Then a overflowing desire comes to me, absurd, of a sort of satanism before Satan, in that one day [...] an escape out of God can be found and the deepest of us stops, I don't know how, to be a part of being or not being.
  
  • Original: E ent?o vem-me o desejo transbordante, absurdo, de uma esp?cie de satanismo que precedeu Sat?, de que um dia [...] se encontre uma fuga para fora de Deus e o mais profundo de n?s deixe, n?o sei como, de fazer parte do ser ou do n?o ser.
    
  • Source: "Os Grandes Trechos", s/n. Translated from the Portuguese Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p.
    
  
  
  

• To stagnate in the sun, goldenly, like an obscure lake surrounded by flowers.
  
  • Original: Estagnar ao sol, douradamente, como um lago obscuro rodeado de flores.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 70)
    
  • Note: About a strictly intellectual life.
    
  
  
  

• For I am the size of what I see / not my height's size.
  
  • Original: Porque eu sou do tamanho do que vejo / e n?o do tamanho da minha altura.
    
  • Attributed to the Caeiro alter ego, in "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 71)
    
  
  
  

• In order to understand, I destroyed myself.
  
  • Original: Para compreender, destru?-me.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 73)
    
  
  
  

• Solitude desolates me; company oppresses me.
  
  • Original: A solid?o desola-me; a companhia oprime-me.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 73)
    
  
  
  

• Yes, talking to people makes me sleepy.
  
  • Original: Sim, falar com gente d?-me vontade de dormir.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 73)
    
  
  
  

• The idea of any social obligation [...] just the idea of it embarasses my thoughts for a day, and sometimes it's since the day before that I worry, and don't sleep well, and the real affair, when it happens, is absolutely insignificant and justifies nothing; and the case repeats itself and I never learn to learn.
  
  • Original: A ideia de uma obriga??o social qualquer [...] s? essa ideia me estorva os pensamentos de um dia, e ?s vezes ? desde a mesma v?spera que me preocupo, e durmo mal, e o caso real, quando se d?, ? absolutamente insignificante, n?o justifica nada; e o caso repete-se e eu n?o aprendo a aprender.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 73)
    
  
  
  

• The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races.
  
  • Original: A beleza de um corpo nu s? o sentem as ra?as vestidas.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 75)
    
  
  
  

• What is a disease is wishing with an equal intensity what is needed and what is desirable, and suffer for not being perfect as you would suffer for not having bread. The romantic error is this wanting the moon as if there was a way to get it.
  
  • Original: O que ? doen?a ? desejar com igual intensidade o que ? preciso e o que ?desej?vel, e sofrer por n?o ser perfeito como se se sofresse por n?o ter p?o. O mal rom?ntico ? este: ? querer a lua como se houvesse maneira de a obter.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 77)
    
  
  
  

• I take with me the conscience of defeat as a victory banner.
  
  • Original: Levo comigo a consci?ncia da derrota como um pend?o de vit?ria.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 79)
    
  
  
  

• It is noble to be shy, illustrious not to know how to act, great not to have a gift for living.
  
  • Original: ? nobre ser t?mido, ilustre n?o saber agir, grande n?o ter jeito para viver.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 86)
    
  
  
  

• Blessed are those who never entrust their life to no one.
  
  • Original: Benditos os que n?o confiam a vida a ningu?m.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 86)
    
  
  
  

• Everyone has his vanity, and each one's vanity is his forgetting that there are others with an equal soul.
  
  • Original: Cada um tem a sua vaidade, e a vaidade de cada um ? o seu esquecimento de que h? outros com alma igual.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 88)
    
  
  
  

• I reread? I lied! I don't dare to reread. I cannot reread. What's the point, for me, in rereading?
  
  • Original: Releio? Menti! N?o ouso reler. N?o posso reler. De que me serve reler?
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 88)
    
  
  
  

• Civilization consists in giving something an unfitting name, then dream about the result. And indeed the false name and the real dream create a new reality. The object really becomes another, because we turned it into another one. We manufacture realities.
  
  • Original: A civiliza??o consiste em dar a qualquer coisa um nome que lhe n?o compete, e depois sonhar sobre o resultado. E realmente o nome falso e o sonho verdadeiro criam uma nova realidade. O objecto torna-se realmente outro, porque o torn?mos outro. Manufacturamos realidades.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 89)
    
  
  
  

• The consciousness of life's unconsciousness is intelligence's oldest tax.
  
  • Original: A consci?ncia da insonsci?ncia da vida ? o mais antigo imposto ? intelig?ncia.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 91)
    
  
  
  

• A sort of anteneurosis of what I will be when I will not longer be freezes my body and soul. A kind of remembrance of my future death makes me shudder from the inside.
  
  • Original: Uma esp?cie de anteneurose do que serei quando j? n?o for gela-me o corpo e alma. Uma como que lembran?a da minha morte futura arrepia-me dentro.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 91)
    
  
  
  

• What, I believe, produces in me the deep feeling, in which I live, of incongruity with others, is that most think with sensitivity, while I feel with thought.
  
  • Original: Aquilo que, creio, produz em mim o sentimento profundo, em que vivo, de incongu?ncia com os outros, ? que a maioria pensa com a sensibilidade, e eu sinto com o pensamento.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 93)
    
  
  
  

• You breathe better when you're rich.
  
  • Original: Respira-se melhor quando se ? rico.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 95)
    
  
  
  

• I never go to where's a risk. I'm frightened of dangers down to boredom.
  
  • Original: Nunca vou para onde h? risco. tenho medo a t?dio dos perigos.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 96)
    
  
  
  

• Some sensations are sleeps that take up all the extent of the mind like a fog, don't let us think, don't let us act, don't let us be clearly.
  
  • Original: H? sensa??es que s?o sonos, que ocupam como uma n?voa toda a extens?o do esp?rito, que n?o deixam pensar, que n?o deixam agir, que n?o deixam claramente ser.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 98)
    
  
  
  

• My joy is as painful as my pain.
  
  • Original: A minha alegria ? t?o dolorosa como a minha dor.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 100)
    
  
  
  

• Between me and life is a faint glass. No matter how sharply I see and understand life, I cannot touch it.
  
  • Original: Entre mim e a vida h? um vidro t?nue. por mais nitidamente que eu veja e compreenda a vida, eu n?o lhe posso tocar.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 100)
    
  
  
  

• My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
  
  • Original: Os meus sonhos s?o um ref?gio est?pido, como um guarda-chuva contra um raio.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 101)
    
  
  
  

• My life is as if you've hit me with it.
  
  • Original: A minha vida ? como se me batessem com ela.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 101)
    
  
  
  

• If we knew the truth, we'd see it; all else is system and outskirts.
  
  • Original: Se conhec?ssemos a verdade, v?-la-?amos; tudo o mais ? sistema e arrabaldes.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 106)
    
  
  
  

• They bring me faith like a closed package in someone else's plate. They want me to accept it so that I don't open it.
  
  • Original: Trazem-me a f? como um embrulho fechado numa salva alheia. Querem que o aceite para que n?o o abra.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 106)
    
  
  
  

• The superiority of the dreamer is that dreaming is much more practical than living, and that the dreamer extracts from life a much vaster and varied pleasure than the action man. In better and more direct words, the dreamer is the real action man.
  
  • Original: A superioridade do sonhador consiste em que sonhar ? muito mais pr?tico que viver, e em que o sonhador extrai da vida um prazer muito mais vasto e muito mais variado do que o homem de ac??o. Em melhores e mais directas palavras, o sonhador ? que ? o homem de ac??o.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 110)
    
  
  
  

• I never meant to be but a dreamer.
  
  • Original: Nunca pretendi ser sen?o um sonhador.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 110)
    
  
  
  

• There's no regret more painful than the regret of things that never were.
  
  • Original: Ah, n?o h? saudades mais dolorosas do que as das coisas que nunca foram!
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 111)
    
  
  
  

• I always live in the present. The future I can't know. The past I no longer have.
  
  • Original: Vivo sempre no presente. O futuro, n?o o conhe?o. O passado, j? o n?o tenho.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 118)
    
  
  
  

• The supreme empire is that of the Emperor who renounces all normal life, that of other men, and in who the care of supremacy doesn't weigh like a load of jewels.
  
  • Original: O imp?rio supremo ? o do Imperador que abdica de toda a vida normal, dos outros homens, em quem o cuidado da supremacia n?o pesa como um fardo de j?ias.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 121)
    
  
  
  

• I will be what I want. But I will have to want what I'll be. Success is in having success, not conditions for success.
  
  • Original: Serei o que quiser. Mas tenho que querer o que for. O ?xito est? em ter ?xito, e n?o em ter condi??es de ?xito.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 122)
    
  
  
  

• To act is to rest.
  
  • Original: Agir ? repousar.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 122)
    
  
  
  

• All problemas are unsolvable. The essence of the existence of a problem is that there is no solution. Looking for a fact means there is no fact. To think is not to know how to be.
  
  • Original: Todos os problemas s?o insol?veis. A ess?ncia de haver um problema ? n?o haver solu??o. Procurar um facto significa n?o haver um facto. Pensar ? n?o saber existir.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 123)
    
  
  
  

• His livid face is a bewildered false green. I notice it, between the chest's hard air, with the fraternity of knowing I will also be so.
  
  • Original: A sua cara l?vida est? de um verde falso e desnorteado. Noto-o, entre o ar dif?cil do peito, com a fraternidade de saber que tamb?m estarei assim.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 124)
    
  
  
  

• We never love someone. We just love the idea we have of someone. It's a concept of ours - summing up, ourselves - that we love.
  
  • Original: Nunca amamos nigu?m. Amamos, t?o-somente, a ideia que fazemos de algu?m. ? a um conceito nosso -- em suma, ? a n?s mesmos -- que amamos.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 125)
    
  
  
  

• To write is to forget. Literature is the pleasantest way of ignoring life.
  
  • Original: Escrever ? esquecer. A literatura ? a maneira mais agrad?vel de ignorar a vida.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". (Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 128)
    
  
  
  

• Being pleased with what they give you is proper of slaves. Asking for more is proper of children. Conquering more is proper of fools.
  
  • Original: Contentar-se com o que lhe d?o ? pr?prio dos escravos. Pedir masi ? pr?prio das crian?as. Conquistar mais ? pr?prio dos loucos [porque toda a conquista ? [X]]
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 133.
    
  • Note: [X]: text missing in the manuscript.
    
  
  
  

• To be understood is to prostitute yourself.
  
  • Original: Ser compreendido ? prostituir-se.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 136.
    
  
  
  

• I search and can't find myself. I belong in chrysanthemum time, sharp in calla lily elongations. God made my soul into an ornamental thing.
  
  • Original: Busco-me e n?o me encontro. Perten?o a horas cris?ntemos, n?tidas em alongamentos de jarros. Deus fez da minha alma uma coisa decorativa.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 140.
    
  
  
  

• 'Any road', said Carlyle, 'even this road to Entepfuhl, will take you to the end of the world'. But the Entepfuhl road, if taken in its entirety, and to the end, goes back to Entepfuhl; so Entepfuhl, where we already were, is that very end of the world we were seeking.
  
  • Original: "Qualquer estrada", disse Carlyle, "at? esta estrada de Entepfuhl, te leva at? ao fim do mundo". Mas a estrada de Entepfuhl, se for seguida toda, e at? ao fim, volta a Entepfuhl; de modo que o Entepfuhl, onde j? est?vamo, ? aquele mesmo fim do mundo que ?amos buscar.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 142.
    
  
  
  

• It's been a long time since I've been me.
  
  • Original: H? muito tempo que n?o sou eu.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 143
    
  
  
  

• Inside the henhouse from where he will be taken to be killed, the **** sings hymns to liberty because he was given two perches.
  
  • Original: Dentro da capoeira de onde ir? a matar, o galo canta hinos ? liberdade porque lhe deram dois poleiros.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 144.
    
  
  
  

• What's most worthless about dreams is that everybody has them.
  
  • Original: O que h? de mais reles nos sonhos ? que todos os t?m.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 145.
    
  
  
  

• The end is low, like all quantitative ends, personal or not, and it can be attained and verified.
  
  • Original: O fim ? baixo, comotodos os fins quantitativos, pessoais ou n?o, e ? ating?vel e verific?vel.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 149.
    
  
  
  

• The perfect man of pagans was the perfection of the man there is; the perfect man of christians, the perfection of the man there isn't; the buddhists' perfect man, the perfection of not existing a man.
  
  • Original: O homem perfeito do pag?o era a perfei??o do homem que h?; o homem perfeito do crist?o a perfei??o do homem que n?o h?; o homem perfeito do budista a perfei??o de n?o haver homem.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 150.
    
  
  
  

• Nature is the difference between the soul and God.
  
  • Original: A natureza ? a diferen?a entre a alma e Deus.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 150.
    
  
  
  

• There is no safe standard to tell man from animals.
  
  • Original: N?o h? crit?rio seguro para distinguir o homem dos animais.
    
  • A Factless Autobiography. Richard Zenith Edition. 2006. p. 150.
    
  
  
  

• Irony is the first hint that consciousness became conscious.
  
  • Original: A ironia ? o primeiro ind?cio de que a consci?ncia se tornou consciente.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 151
    
  
  
  

• Who am I to myself? Just a feeling of mine.
  
  • Original: Quem sou eu para mim? S? uma sensa??o minha.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 156
    
  
  
  

• I will necessarily say what it seems to me, given that I'm me.
  
  • Original: Hei-de por for?a dizer o que me parece, visto que sou eu.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 162
    
  
  
  

• Direct experience is the evasion, or hiding place of those devoid of imagination.
  
  • Original: A experi?ncia directa ? o subterf?gio, ou o esconderijo, daqueles que s?o desprovidos de imagina??o.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 163
    
  
  
  

• Action men are the unvoluntary slaves of wise men.
  
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 163
    
  
  
  

• To narrate is to create, for living is just being lived.
  
  • Original: Narrar ? criar, pois viver ? apenas ser vivido.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 163
    
  
  
  

• I never cared about whatever tragic event happened in China. It's faraway decoration, even if in blood and plague.
  
  • Original: Nunca me pesou o que de tr?gico se passasse na China. ? decora??o long?nqua, ainda que a sangue e peste.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 164
    
  
  
  

• The slope takes you to the windmill, but effort takes you nowhere.
  
  • Original: A ladeira leva ao moinho, mas o esfor?o n?o leva a nada.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 171
    
  
  
  

• Destiny gave me only two things: a few accounting books and the gift of dreaming.
  
  • Original: Duas coisas s? me deu o Destino: uns livros de contabilidade e o dom de sonhar.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 171
    
  
  
  

• In today's life, the world belongs only to the stupid, the insensitive and the agitated. The right to live and triumph is now conquered almost by the same means by which you conquer internment in an asylum: the inability to think, amorality and hiperexcitation.
  
  • Original: Na vida de hoje, o mundo s? pertence aos est?pidos, aos insens?veis e aos agitados. O direito a viver e a triunfar conquista-se hoje quase pelos mesmos processos por que se conquista o internamento num manic?mio: a incapacidade de pensar, a amoralidade e a hiperexcita??o.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 173
    
  
  
  

• What is art but the denial of life?
  
  • Original: Que ? a arte sen?o a nega??o da vida?
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 174
    
  
  
  

• Common man, no matter how hard life is to him, at least has the fortune of not thinking it.
  
  • Original: O homem vulgar, por mais dura que lhe seja a vida, tem ao menos a felicidade de a n?o pensar.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 181
    
  
  
  

• To think is to destroy. The very process of thought indicates it for the same thought, as thinking is decomposing.
  
  • Original: Pensar ? destruir. O pr?prio processo do pensamento o indica para o mesmo pensamento, porque pensar ? decompor.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 181
    
  
  
  

• I sometimes think, with a sad delight, that if one day, in a future I no longer belong to, these sentences, that I write, last with praise, I will at last have the people who understand me, those mine, the true family to be born in and be loved. [...] I will only be understood in effigy, when affection no longer repays the dead the unaffection that was, when living.
  
  • Original: Penso as vezes, com um deleite triste, que se um dia, num futuro a que eu j? n?o perten?a, estas frases, que escrevo, durarem com louvor, eu terei enfim a gente que me "compreenda", os meus, a fam?lia verdadeiro para nela nascer e ser amado. [...] Serei compreendido s? em ef?gie, quando a afei??o j? n?o compense a quem morreu a s? desafei??o que houve, quando vivo.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 182
    
  
  
  

• Enthusiasm is rude.
  
  • Original: O entusiasmo ? uma grosseria.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 200
    
  
  
  

• My God, my God, who am I attending to? How many am I? Who is me? What is this interval between me and me?
  
  • Original: Meu Deus, meu Deus, a quem assisto? Quantos sou? Quem ? eu? O que ? este intervalo que h? entre mim e mim?
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 201
    
  
  
  

• Being a retired major looks like an ideal thing to me. What a pity you couldn't eternally have been just a retired major.
  
  • Original: Ser major reformado parece-me uma coisa ideal. ? pena n?o se poder ter sido eternamente apenas major reformado.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 218
    
  
  
  

• My curiosity sister of larks.
  
  • Original: A minha curiosidade irm? das cotovias
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 219
    
  
  
  

• If a man can only write well when drunk, I'll tell him: get drunk. And if he tells me that his liver suffers with it, I'll answer: what's your liver? It's a dead thing that lives as long as you live, and the poems you'll write will live without a as long as.
  
  • Original: Se um homem escreve bem s? quando est? b?bado dir-lhe-ei: embebede-se- E se ele me disser que o seu f?gado sofre com isso, respondo: o que ? o seu f?gado? ? uma coisa morta que vive enquanto voc? vive, e os poemas que escrever vivem sem enquanto.
    
  • English note by the hand of the poet in the same paper sheet: Your poems are of interest to mankind; your liver isn't. Drink till you write well and feel sick. Bless your poems and be damned to you.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 229
    
  
  
  

• My homeland is the portuguese language.
  
  • Original: Minha P?tria ? a l?ngua portuguesa.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 230
    
  
  
  

• Art consists in making others feel what we feel.
  
  • Original: A arte consiste em fazer os outros sentir o que n?s sentimos.
    
  • "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 231
    
  
  
  

• Art lies because it's social.
  
  • Original: A arte mente porque ? social
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 232
    
  
  
  

• Tedium is the lack of a mithology. To whom has no beliefs, even doubt is impossible, even skepticism has no strength to suspect.
  
  • Original: O t?dio ? a falta de uma mitologia. A quem n?o tem cren?as, at? a d?vida ? imposs?vel, at? o cepticismo n?o tem for?a para desconfiar.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p.
    
  
  
  

• Smell is a strange sight. It evokes sentimental landscapes through a sudden sketching of the subconscious.
  
  • Original: O olfacto ? uma vista estranha. Evoca paisagens sentimentais por um desenhar s?bito do subconsciente.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 238
    
  
  
  

• Deceiving himself well is the first quality of the statesman.
  
  • Original: Saber iludir-se bem ? a primeira qualidade do estadista.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 241
    
  
  
  

• It's certain that, when hearing from any of those people the story of their sexual marathons, a vague suspicion pervades us, at about the seventh deflowering.
  
  • Original: ? certo que, ao ouvir contar a qualquer destes indiv?duos as suas maratonas sexuais, uma vaga suspeita nos invade, pela altura do s?timo desfloramento.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 243
    
  
  
  

• Liberty is the possibility of isolation.
  
  • Original: A liberdade ? a possibilidade do isolamento.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 246
    
  
  
  

• If you cannot live alone, you were born a slave.
  
  • Original: Se te ? imposs?vel viver s?, nasceste escravo.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 246
    
  
  
  

• And let our despite go to those who work and fight and our hate to those who hope and trust.
  
  • Original: E seja o nosso desprezo para os que trabalham e lutam e o nosso ?dio para os que esperam e confiam.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 248
    
  
  
  

• We adore perfection because we can't have it; it would disgust us if we had it. Perfect is inhuman, because human is imperfect.
  
  • Original: Adoramos a perfei??o, porque n?o a podemos ter; repugn?-la-?amos, se a tiv?ssemos. O perfeito ? o desumano, porque o humano ? imperfeito.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 249
    
  
  
  

• If I had written King Lear, I would regret it all my life afterwards. Because that work is so big, that its defects show as huge, its monstrous defects, things even minimal in between some scenes and their possible perfection. It's not the sun with spots; it's a broken greek statue.
  
  • Original: Se eu tivesse escrito o Rei Lear, levaria com remorsos toda a minha vida de depois. Porque essa obra ? t?o grande, que enormes avultam os seus defeitos, os seus monstruosos defeitos, as coisas at? m?nimas que est?o entre certas cenas e a perfei??o poss?vel delas. N?o ? o sol com manchas; ? uma est?tua grega partida.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 250
    
  
  
  

• For valuing your own suffering sets on it the gold of a sun of pride. Suffering a lot can originate the illusion of being the Chosen of Pain.
  
  • Original: Porque dar valor ao pr?prio sofrimento p?e-lhe o ouro de um sol do orgulho. Sofrer muito pode dar a ilus?o de ser o Eleito da Dor.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 253
    
  
  
  

• All is absurd.
  
  • Original: Tudo ? absurdo.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 255
    
  
  
  

• The world belongs to who doesn't feel. The primary condition to be a practical man is the absence of sensitivity.
  
  • Original: O mundo ? de quem n?o sente. A condi??o essencial para se ser um homem pr?tico ? a aus?ncia de sensibilidade.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 258
    
  
  
  

• What would happen to the world if we were human?
  
  • Original: Que seria do mundo se f?ssemos humanos?
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 259
    
  
  
  

• Who doesn't feel commands. He who only thinks what is required in order to win, wins.
  
  • Original: Manda quem n?o sente. Vence quem pensa s? o que precisa para vencer.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 260
    
  
  
  

• Sailing is necessary, living is not necessary.
  
  • Original: Navegar ? preciso, viver n?o ? preciso.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, pps. 133, 262
    
  • Note: This has been attributed to Pessoa. Indeed, it is from Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", about Pompeus, when demanding that soldiers board the ships, when they were afraid of dying at sea.
    
  
  
  

• All pleasure is a vice, for seeking pleasure is what everybody does in life, and the only dark vice is doing what everybody does.
  
  • Original: Todo o prazer ? um v?cio, porque buscar o prazer ? o que todos fazem na vida, e o ?nico v?cio negro ? fazer o que toda a gente faz.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 265
    
  
  
  

• I'm upset by the happiness of all these men who don't know they're unhappy. [...] Because of that, though, I love them all. Dear vegetables!
  
  • Original: Irrita-me a felicidade de todos estes homens que n?o sabem que s?o infelizes.[...] Por isto, contudo, amo-os a todos. Meus queridos vegetais!
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 266
    
  
  
  

• For the moment being, given that we live in society, the only duty of superior men is to reduce to a minimum their participation in the tribe's life. Not to read newspapers, or read them only to know about whatever unimportant and curious is going on. / [...] The supreme honorable state for a superior man is in not knowing who is the Head of State of his country, or if he lives under a monarchy or a republic. / All his attitude must be setting his soul so that the passing of things, of events doesn't bother him. If he doesn't do it he will have to take an interest in others in order to take care of himself.
  
  • Original: Por enquanto, visto que vivemos em sociedade, o ?nico dver dos superiores ? reduzirem ao m?nimo a sua participa??o na vida da tribo. N?o ler jornais, ou l?-los s? para saber o que de pouco importante ou curioso se passa. / [...] O supremo estado honroso para um homem superior ? n?o saber quem ? o chefe de Estado do seu pa?s, ou se vive sob monarquia ou sob rep?blica. / Toda a sua atitude deve ser colocar-se a alma de modo que a passagem das coisas, dos acontecimentos n?o o incomode. Se o n?o fizer ter? que se interessar pelos outros, para cuidar de si pr?prio.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 267
    
  
  
  

• Wasting time has an esthetics to it.
  
  • Original: Perder tempo comporta uma est?tica
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 267
    
  
  
  

• I never was but an isolated bon vivant, which is absurd; or a mystic bon vivant, which is an impossible thing.
  
  • Original: Nunca fui mais que um bo?mio isolado, o que ? um absurdo; ou um bo?mio m?stico, o que ? uma coisa imposs?vel.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 271
    
  • Note: a possible play on Tertullian's: "credo quia absurdum" (I believe because it's absurd), "credo quia impossibilis est" (I believe because it's impossible).
    
  
  
  

• It's in an inland sea that the river of my life ended.
  
  • Original: Foi num mar interior que o rio da minha vida findou.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 271
    
  
  
  

• Every gesture is a revolutionary act.
  
  • Original: Todo o gesto ? um acto revolucion?rio.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 274
    
  
  
  

• Knowing not to have illusions is absolutely necessary in order to have dreams.
  
  • Original: Saber n?o ter ilus?es ? absolutamente necess?rio para se poder ter sonhos.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 276
    
  
  
  

• Why is art beautiful? Because it's useless. Why is life ugly? Because it's all ends and purposes and intentions.
  
  • Original: Porque ? bela a arte? Porque ? in?til. Porque ? feia a vida? Porque ? toda fins e prop?sitos e inten??es.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 279
    
  
  
  

• And the supreme glory of all this, my love, is to think that maybe this isn't true, neither may I believe it true. // And when lying starts giving us pleasure, let's speak the truth so that we lie to it.
  
  • Original: E a suprema gl?ria disto tudo, meu amor, ? pensar que talvez isto n?o seja verdade, nem eu o creia verdadeiro. // E quando a mentira comece a dar-nos prazer, falemos a verdade para lhe mentirmos.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 280
    
  
  
  

• My head and the universe ache me.
  
  • Original: Doem-me a cabe?a e o universo.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 280
    
  
  
  

• Yet I have no stylistic nobility. My head aches because my head aches. The universe aches me because my head aches.
  
  • Original: Eu, por?m, n?o tenho nobreza estil?stica. D?i-me a cabe?a porque me d?i a cabe?a. D?i-me o universo porque me d?i a cabe?a.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 280
    
  
  
  

• Given that we cannot know all the elements in a problem, we never can solve it.
  
  • Original: Como nunca podemos conhecer todos os elementos de uma quest?o, nunca a podemos resolver.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 282
    
  
  
  

• I don't believe in the landscape.
  
  • Original: N?o acredito na paisagem.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 286
    
  
  
  

• I say it because I don't believe.
  
  • Original: Digo-o porque n?o acredito.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 286
    
  
  
  

• When I write, I solemnly visit myself.
  
  • Original: Quando escrevo, visito-me solenemente.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 287
    
  
  
  

• Life is a thread that someone entangled.
  
  • Original: A vida ? um novelo que algu?m emaranhou.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 287
    
  
  
  

• They were two and beautiful and wanted to be something else; love delayed itself to them in the tedium of the future, and regret of what would happen to be was already being the daughter of the love they hadn't had.
  
  • Original: Eram dois e belos e desejavam ser outra coisa; o amor tardava-lhes no t?dio do futuro, e a saudade do que haveria de ser vinha j? sendo filha do amor que n?o tinham tido.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 288
    
  
  
  

• Only sterility is noble and dignified. Only killing what never was is elevated and perverse and absurd.
  
  • Original: S? a esterilidade ? nobre e digna. S? o matar o que nunca foi ? alto e perverso e absurdo.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 289
    
  
  
  

• I exempt you of being present in my idea of you.
  
  • Original: Dispenso-a de comparecer na minha ideia de si.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 290
    
  
  
  

• That's not my love; that's just your life.
  
  • Original: Isso n?o ? o meu amor; ? apenas a sua vida.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 290
    
  
  
  

• And as well as I dream, I reason if I want, for that's just another kind of dream.
  
  • Original: E assim como sonho, raciocino se quiser, porque isso ? apenas uma outra esp?cia de sonho.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 320
    
  
  
  

• There is no happiness without knowledge. But knowledge of happiness is unhappy; for knowing ourselves happy is knowing ourselves passing through happiness, and having to, immediatly at once, leave it behind. To know is to kill, in happiness as in everything. Not to know, though, is not to exist.
  
  • Original: N?o h? felicidade sen?o com conhecimento. Mas o conhecimento da felicidade ? infeliz; porque conhecer-se feliz ? conhecer-se passando pela felicidade, e tendo, logo j?, que deix?-la atr?s. Saber ? matar, na felicidade como em tudo. N?o saber, por?m, ? n?o existir.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 328
    
  
  
  

• I don't write in Portuguese. I write myself.
  
  • Original: Eu n?o escrevo em portugu?s. Escrevo eu mesmo.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 353
    
  
  
  

• To travel? In order to travel it's enough to be. [...] Why travel? In Madrid, in Berlin, in Persia, in China, at the Poles both, where would I be but in myself, and in the sort and kind of my sensations? // Life is what we make of it. Travels are travellers. What we see is not what we see but what we are.
  
  • Original: Viajar? Para viajar basta existir. [...] Para qu? viajar? Em Madrid, em Berlim, na P?rsia, na China, nos P?los ambos, onde estaria eu sen?o em mim mesmo, e no tipo e g?nero das minhas sensa??es? // A vida ? o que fazemos dela. As viagens s?o os viajantes. O que vemos n?o ? o que vemos, sen?o o que somos.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 360
    
  
  
  

• I'd like to be in the country so that I'd could like being in the city.
  
  • Original: Gostava de estar no campo para poder gostar de estar na cidade.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 367
    
  
  
  

• Man shouldn't be able to see his own face. That's what's most terrible. Nature gave him the possibility of not seeing it, as well as the incapacity of not seeing his own eyes.
  
  • Original: O homem n?o deve poder ver a sua pr?pria cara. Isso ? o que h? de mais terr?vel. A Natureza deu-lhe o dom de n?o a poder ver, assim como a de n?o poder fitar os seus pr?prios olhos.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 371
    
  
  
  

• In any spirit that isn't deformed there is the belief in God. In any spirit that is not deformed there isn't the belief in a particular God.
  
  • Original: Em qualquer esp?rito, que n?o seja disforme, existe a cren?a em Deus. Em qualquer esp?rito, que n?o seja disforme, n?o existe cren?a em um Deus definido.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 375
    
  
  
  

• I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner reality.
  
  • Original: Sou um homem para quem o mundo exterior ? uma realidade interior.
    
  • Source: "A Factless Autobiography". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 376
    
  
  
  

• Humanitarianim is rude.
  
  • Original: O humanitarismo ? uma grosseria.
    
  • Source: "Os Grandes Trechos". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p.
    
  
  
  

• Property isn't theft: it's nothing.
  
  • Original: A propriedade n?o ? roubo: n?o ? nada.
    
  • Source: "Os Grandes Trechos". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p.
    
  
  
  

• To have defined and sure opinions, fixed and known instincts, passions and character -- all that is the horror of turning our soul into a fact, materialize it and make it external.
  
  • Original: Ter opini?es definidas e certas, instintos, paix?es e car?cter fixo e conhecido -- tudo isto monta ao horror de tornar a nossa alma num facto, de a materializar e tornar exterior.
    
  • Source: "Os Grandes Trechos". Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 413
    
  
  
  

Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, Poe, Tolstoy, Kafka, Pessoa, are central...

Why did death horrify him?

It was certainly an endless nightmare trying for the very first time to bring some poetry alive in English, specially considering my notorious lack of control on the language, and adding the "poem" surrealist nature, mixing concepts impressions and sounds, in a sort of spell of the soul...
Indulgence is what I ask of the readers for such a pretentious attempt !...:sarcastic:

GReat quotes! Yes, he seems quite good. I think Dostoevsky is first class. Have you read The Possessed/Demons? So brilliant. Also C & P, and N from D, and the Gambler, the Brothers, ETernal Husband. Yeah, D is a genius of the first water. Also think Kafka is great. Tolstoy is great in Anna K. Didn't like his What Is Art? much, but he was grinding an axe, and I don't much like the nasty side of Nietzsche either. Baudelaire is someone I tried to read in translation, but the trans wasn't good, or didn't seem good. I saw some decent translations of Apollonaire that intrigued me. Of course I've enjoyed my share of Poe.

Do you like Nabokov? He's filthy, but quite the writer. What about Bukowski or H. Miller?

---------- Post added 04-10-2010 at 11:57 PM ----------



I'll venture a guess. I'm not afraid of death as death, but only of death as the end of life. Death as the loss of something beautiful, that is in itself painless. ?

i would say you definitely succeeded...and i would guess poetry and jokes are the two hardest things to master in another language.

Why did death horrify him?

They all are great indeed...but speaking in C. Baudelaire try to get "Les fleurs du mal" and "Mon coeur mis a nu", I find them a challenge worth taking...from Miller I read Tropic of cancer long time ago...a very vivid book.
How about Saramago have you heard on him ? Heavy stuff from the "lefty" yet brilliant old fox...but still of course, there is some space left for Terry Prachett books and other light readings.
.