Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) was a significant poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher in the Portuguese language of the 20th century .

A central figure in Portuguese Modernism.

Biography

• Fernando Pessoa was born on June 13, 1888, in Lisbon, Portugal.

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• It was in 1902 that he published his first poem — “When a pain me bittersweet” — in the newspaper O Imparcial, in Lisbon.

Biography

• His first book in Portuguese — Mensagem — was published in 1934.
• The day before he died, Fernando Pessoa wrote, in pencil, the following words: “I know not what tomorrow will bring”, that is, “I don't know what tomorrow will bring”.
• Thus, the poet left around 25 thousand pages of texts, which have been slowly published since his death.

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Heteronyms

• Fernando Pessoa was several poets at the same time.
• He created their own personalities for the various poets who lived in it. Each one has his own biography and different personality traits.
• Poets are not pseudonyms but heteronyms, that is, different individuals, each with their own world, representing what anguished or enchanted their author:

                  -  Alberto Caeiro

                   - Ricardo Reis

                  -  Bernardo Soares

                   - Álvaro de Campos 

Heteronyms

 Álvaro de Campos, was the most important heteronym of Fernando Pessoa.

He is the modern poet, the one who lives the ideologies of the 20th century.

His verses reproduce revolt and nonconformity, manifested through a true poetic revolution.

He wrote “Ode Triunfal”, “Ode Marítima” and “Tobacaria”.

Fernando Pessoa’s most famous work

Books                                                                                        Prose 

-Book of Disquiet;                                                                    -Pessoa and Fado: a statement from 1929;

-Interlude fictions: beyond the other ocean;                       -Intimate and self-interpretation pages;

-The Anarchist Banker;                                                             -Pages of aesthetics and theory and criticism;

-The Sailor;

-By Himself.                                       

Poetry

-The Boat;                                                 -First Faust;�-Freedom;                                                -Solemnly;�-Autopsychography;                               -The keeper of herds; �-Portuguese Sea;                                     -Maritime Ode;�-Message;                                                -All love letters...�-Omen;

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Some Books' covers

Poem – Ulysses

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O mito é o nada que é tudo.                                          Myth is the nothing that is everything.

O mesmo sol que abre os céus                                      The same sun that opens the skies

É um mito brilhante e mudo —                                      It's a bright and mute myth 

O corpo morto de Deus,                                                  God's dead body

Vivo e desnudo.                                                                Alive and naked.

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Este, que aqui aportou,                                                   This one, who arrived here,

Foi por não ser existindo.                                                It was for not being

Sem existir nos bastou.                                                    Not existing was enough for us.

Por não ter vindo foi vindo                                             For not having come was coming

E nos criou.                                                                        And created us.

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Assim a lenda se escorre                                                 So the legend flows

A entrar na realidade,                                                      Entering reality

E a fecundá-la decorre.                                                    And to fertilize it follows.

Em baixo, a vida, metade                                                Below, life, half

De nada, morre.                                                               You're welcome, die.

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Statue

• Fernando Pessoa was known to spend many of his days sitting on the terrace of a Cafe “A Brasileira” in Chiado, Lisbon.
• To evoke that memory, a statue was built on the exact place where he used to sit.
• A chair next to him invites tourists to sit and take photos.

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