FERNANDO PESSOA

(1888-1935)

He was born in Lisbon, Portugal.

With is family went to live in South Africa when he was 7 years old. But soon returned to Lisbon where he lived his life as an universal poet, writer, translator, literary critic and  philosopher.

Pessoa also developed a strong interest in astrology (elaborated more than 1.500 charts).

As a mysticist he was also very enthusiat of esoterism, occultism, numerology and spiritualism.

He antecipated the contemporary poets and novelists. A genius hard to pin, with a multiplicity of selves.

Yes, he fractured himself into three primary heteronymus - Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Alvaro de Campos.

He died very young but left 25.000 manuscripts, poems, essays, prose, meditations, astrologic charts and also the mistery of the  great inspiration for artists, writers, and painters.

Here a few examples among thousand of others. 

"My past is everything I failed to be"

"the keeper of sheep", Toni Frissel,  1946

"O poeta é um fingidor

Finge tão completamente

Que chega a fingir que é dor

A dor que deveras sente."

escultura de Lagoa Henriques, bronze,  2005

"O povo Português é essencialmente cosmopolita. Nunca um verdadeiro Português foi

apenas um Português, foi sempre tudo."

mural , Joana Vasconcelos, Bienal de Veneza,  2013





"Matar o sonho é matarmo-nos. É mutilar a nossa alma. 
O sonho é o que temos de realmente  nosso."

pintura de Antonio Costa Pinheiro,  1976

"Wise is the one who enjoys the show offered by the world."

Michael Kunze

"Quanto mais diferente de mim alguém é, mais real me parece, porque menos depende da minha subjectividade."

Julio Pomar

"Tudo vale a pena se a alma não é pequena."

Alto dos Moinhos, Fernando Pessoa, por Julio Pomar



"I have always rejected being understood.
To be understood is to prostitute oneself."

Fernando Pessoa com Mário Sá Carneiro,  desenho Vasco Barreto


"O homem é do tamanho do seu sonho."

Kim Prisu

      "Amor não se conjuga no passado, ou se ama para sempre ou nunca se amou verdadeiramente."

Almada Negreiros

        "The value of things is not the time they last, but the intensity with which they occur."

Abel Manta

"I have no ambitions nor desires. To be a poet is not my ambition, it's simply my way of being alone." 

Ricardo Campos, cartoon