Fernando Pessoa

xii, 81 pages ; 21 cm

The poetry of "the greatest twentieth century writer you have never heard of " -Los Angeles TimesWriting obsessively in French, English, and Portuguese, Fernando Pessoa left a prodigious body of work, much of it under "heteronyms"—fully fleshed alter egos with startlingly different styles and points of view. Offering a unique sampling of all his most famous voices, this collection features poems that have never before been translated alongside many originally composed in English. In addition to such major works as "Maritime Ode of Campos" and his Goethe-inspired Faust, written in blank verse, there are several stunning poems that have only come to light in the last five years. Selected and translated by leading Pessoa scholar Richard Zenith, this is the finest introduction available to the breadth of Pessoa’s genius.The translations are based on the most authoritative editions, verified against the original manuscriptsIncludes an Introduction discussing Pessoa, his work, and the phenomenon of "heteronymy" as well as a chronology

Unico livro em português publicado em vida por Fernando Pessoa, trata-se de uma pequena epopéia em que o eu lírico é na verdade um 'nós' - a nação portuguesa. São poemas 'em que se resume a história passada, e a promessa da história futura, de Portugal', como escreveu Pessoa. No centro do poema - assim como no centro da nação e da alma portuguesa - surge o mito de d.Sebastião, força aglutinadora de todas as esperanças.

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) - a poet who lived most of his life in a furnished room in Lisbon, Portugal, and who died in obscurity there - has in recent years gained international recognition as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Pessoa was as much a creator of personas as he was of poetry, prose, and criticism. He wrote under numerous "heteronyms," or literary alter egos, and invented fully fleshed biographies for all of them. In the voices of these heteronyms, who supported and criticized each other's work in the margins of his drafts and in the literary journals of the time, Pessoa ranged widely over the possibilities of language. His poetry contains echoes of symbolist verse, Portuguese folk song, and futurist manifesto; it evokes both the breathtaking minimalism of the theory of relativity and the revolutionary exuberance of Leaves of Grass.

Fernando Pessoa adopted in his writing 4 separate personae - Alberto Caerio, Alvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis, and himself. Though he led a quiet life, his poetry reveals a mind shaken by inner suffering.