as a little homage to my mother
[and not that she reads this blog]
i remember today, the Portuguese poet
Fernando Pessoa
one of my mother's favorite writers
Pessoa is a wonderful poet
who lived to authentic life of a poet
immersed always on the darkness of
self-inquisitiveness while turning
his search into beautiful poems
but also some rather painfully wonderful prose
i think his major prose piece might be
Das Buch der Unruhe
The Book of Disquiet
El Libro del desasosiego
[one little dusty shelf at home]
and here some quotes
taken literally form my book
i will try to translate in English
as my Pessoa books are both in Spanish
and they are both a gift from my mom
i sort of requested them from her shelves
and she wasn't too happy to give them to me
as she likes to keep at least a copy for herself
but being an only daughter and she knowing
the treasure that Pessoa is, she handed one to me
and the other one, the purple one with the
Poemas Esotéricos, she left here on one of her visits
es tut mir Leid, my german is not so good
to try to translate these powerful words
318.
... ships passing in the night, not greeting each other, not knowing each other...
220. Painful Pause
To dream, what for?
What have I done of myself? Nothing.
If I could myself spiritualize in the night, yes.
Internal statue without contours, External Dream without having been dreamt
224.
... that episode of imagination that we call reality.
[the rest of the paragraph is beautiful, ironic, and painful too but i cannot translate it all, please look your closer bookstore and buy this book in your language of preference, it will be a soulful companion on dark nights or clear mornings... poetry is never a luxury but a necessity of the heart]
also good companions for heart maladies are his
Esoterisch Gedichte
Esoteric Poems
Poemas Esotéricos
6 comments:
Hi,
I've just noticed today that you had left a comment on my blog. Sorry that I didn't respond earlier. Thanks for the comment. I admire your keen sense for words. I should regret, howerver, I can only use Japanese and English.
hi masanobu, i don't remember the comment myself! i will have to think back, but thanks for stopping by here! i will refresh my memory by visiting you back!
and thanks for your nice words! i have a dear Japanese friend here in San Diego, she introduced me too many delicious things from your country, but my Japanese is inexistent :{... yet I am glad most of us can communicate in English! no wonder it's our international exchange language, thanks for visiting and your comment, see you again!
Not read much of Portugese literature, but I will definitely check out Pessoa now. Thanks for sharing.
hi id :)
I don't know much on Portuguese authors either, I think I actually just know Pessoa and Saramago, the same 2 as you now... and hope I can get to know what you think of Pessoa, and just as a reminder, The Book of Disquiet, more than a proper novel, seems to be a book of 'consulting' for the soul (if that makes any sense) it is composed of several thoughts and reflections on life, very poetic and sometimes a little metaphysical too, hope you enjoy it!
and sorry my blog is a mess, i am working on labeling properly the posts so i can organize stuff by themes, but for the time being, i have here a post where i listed some of the book i read in the past couple of years... all over the blog are other reviews too! hope we can exchange more titles!
http://bereweber.blogspot.com/2007/02/books-lately.html
gracias y buenas noches
Maybe to recommend the Livro do Desassossego is too dangerous for the general public. It should be better to start with an antology of Pessoa/Caeiro/Reis/Campos.
hola nomecentro
you might be right ;) el Libro del Desasosiego has such powerful words... and thanks for the recommendation on that anthology, i shall look for it
thank you!
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