Il libro dell'inquietudine

Here is the only Portuguese literary joke I know: Q. Who are the four greatest Portuguese poets of the 20th century? A. Fernando Pessoa. Trust me, it's funny. But it does take a little explaining. Fernando Pessoa, in order to express various philosophical and poetic moods, constructed a series of wha Leggi tutto

If you read this, you need to know what you are signing up for, so, below, I’ll let Pessoa speak for himself. It’s a series of vignettes, random thoughts and meditations all written between 1913 and 1935. It’s a work of genius, of course. Pessoa, the famous Portuguese writer and poet was known for h Leggi tutto

The Book of Disquiet is incredibly aphoristic – one can take almost any sentence at random and use it as an aphorism… And so, not knowing how to believe in God and unable to believe in an aggregate of animals, I, along with other people on the fringe, kept a distance from things, a distance commonly Leggi tutto

1 Some books wrap me up in dreams and fantasy, creating a protective bubble in which I can leisurely gaze at the world in comfort. The opposite happened when reading “The Book of Disquiet”, a book that lives up to its title like no other. I didn’t get wrapped up in anything. With every sentence I rea Leggi tutto

„Alții sînt mari seducători cărora nu îndrăznesc să le reziste nici măcar femeile inexistente”. Pessoa a lăsat în manuscris o operă imensă. Și valoric, și cantitativ. Zeci de mii de texte (de mînă sau dactilo). Mai precis, dacă este să-i credem pe biografi, 27.543 de texte, poezii, însemnări filosofi Leggi tutto