Pessoa discovered within himself multiple voices, multiple identities: "I am a nomadic wanderer through my
consciousness," he wrote. What his exploration unearthed cannot simply be reduced into one man, one poetry, or one
philosophy. A poetic oeuvre springs forth that is novelistic, for Pessoa conceived his poets like characters in a novel. It is
also a play -- both the actor and the performance. The journey enabled the poet to become all-inclusive, omniscient.
He put down the pen and examined his own mind, and through self-scrutiny discovered the universal.
Standing at the dawn of the twentieth century, Pessoa crawled inward to discover the complicated forces operating
in modern man. "To feel is to create," he wrote. "To feel is to think without ideas, and therefore, feeling is
understanding, given that the universe has no ideas...Feeling opens the doors of the prison in which thought locks the
soul." To read Pessoa is to delve into a world where the maxim, the desire to express the truth, is the only rule.
Finally, the poet is among us, in all his manifestations.
Heteronyms
The literary concept of heteronym, invented by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, refers to one or more imaginary
character(s) created by a poet to write in different styles. Heteronyms differ from nom de plumes (or pseudonyms,
from the Greek "False Name") in that the latter are just false names, while the former are characters having their
own supposed physiques, biographies and writing styles. In Pessoa's case, there are over 70 heteronyms, some of
them know each other, and criticise and translate each other's works. Pessoa's earliest heteronym, at the age of six,
was the Chevalier de Pas. Other childhood heteronyms included Dr Pancrácio and David Merrick, followed by
Charles Robert Anon and Alexander Search; these were eventually succeeded by others, most notably: Alberto
Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis and semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares. According to Pessoa, the heteronym
closest to his personality was Bernardo Soares, the author of Book of Disquiet.
Alberto Caeiro was Pessoa's first great heteronym; summarized by Pessoa, writing: "He sees things with the eyes
only, not with the mind. He does not let any thoughts arise when he looks at a flower... the only thing a stone tells
him is that it has nothing at all to tell him... this way of looking at a stone may be described as the totally unpoetic
way of looking at it. The stupendous fact about Caeiro is that out of this sentiment, or rather, absence of sentiment,
he makes poetry."
I have no ambitions and no desires.
To be a poet is not my ambition,
It's my way of being alone.
Alberto Caeiro: "The Keeper of Herds"
Ricardo Reis sums up his philosophy of life in his own words, admonishing: 'See life from a distance. Never question
it. There's nothing it can tell you.' Like Caeiro, whom he admires, Reis defers from questioning life. He is a modern
pagan who urges one to seize the day and accept fate with tranquility. 'Wise is the one who does not seek', he says;
and continues: 'the seeker will find in all things the abyss, and doubt in himself.' In this sense Reis shares essential
affinities with Caeiro.
Believing in the greek gods, yet living in a Christian Europe, Reis feels that his spiritual life is limited, and true
happiness cannot be attained. This, added to his belief in Fate as a driving force for all that exists, as such
disregarding freedom, leads to his stoic philosophy, which entails the avoidance of pain, defending that man should
seek tranquillity and calm above all else, avoiding emotional extremes.
As long as I feel the full breeze in my hair
And see the sun shining strong on the leaves,
I will not ask for more.
What better thing could destiny give me
Than the sensual passing of life in moments
Of ignorance like this?
Ricardo Reis
Álvaro de Campos manifests, in a way, as an hyperbolic version of Pessoa himself. Of the three heteronyms he is
the one who feels most strongly, his motto being 'to feel everything in every way.' 'The best way to travel,' he wrote,
'is to feel.' As such, his poetry is the most emotionally intense and varied, constantly juggling two fundamental
impulses: on the one hand a feverish desire to be and feel everything and everyone, declaring that 'in every corner of
my soul stands an altar to a different god '(alluding to Walt Whitman's desire to 'contain multitudes'), on the other, a
wish for a state of isolation and a sense of nothingness.
I'm nothing.
I'll always be nothing.
I can't want to be something.
But I have in me all the dreams of the world.
Álvaro de Campos: "The Tobacco Shop"
'Fernando Pessoa-himself' is not the 'real' Fernando Pessoa. Like Caeiro, Reis and Campos-- Pessoa 'himself'
embodies only aspects of the poet. Fernando Pessoa's personality is not stamped in any given voice; his personality is
diffused through the heteronyms. For this reason 'Fernando Pessoa-himself' stands apart from the poet proper.
The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.
Fernando Pessoa-himself: "Autopsychography"
...
“Why have one opinion when it might be possible to have them all? Why strain at the formation of one poetic "voice"
, creation, when it might be possible to have four -- or four dozen? T.S. Eliot, terrified by the idea of such
fragmentation in The Waste Land, fled into conservatism; Yeats reinvented himself as a kind of occult high priest.
Only PESSOA, selflessness itself, proved generous enough to distribute his substantial gift to everything, and everyone,
that was in him. The collapse of certainty in identity exemplified by PESSOA is echoed by every important artist in
our century, from Picasso and Kafka to Peter Handke and Cindy Sherman. For all their differences, the heteronyms
all circle painfully around the philosophic anxiety of the "I."
consciousness," he wrote. What his exploration unearthed cannot simply be reduced into one man, one poetry, or one
philosophy. A poetic oeuvre springs forth that is novelistic, for Pessoa conceived his poets like characters in a novel. It is
also a play -- both the actor and the performance. The journey enabled the poet to become all-inclusive, omniscient.
He put down the pen and examined his own mind, and through self-scrutiny discovered the universal.
Standing at the dawn of the twentieth century, Pessoa crawled inward to discover the complicated forces operating
in modern man. "To feel is to create," he wrote. "To feel is to think without ideas, and therefore, feeling is
understanding, given that the universe has no ideas...Feeling opens the doors of the prison in which thought locks the
soul." To read Pessoa is to delve into a world where the maxim, the desire to express the truth, is the only rule.
Finally, the poet is among us, in all his manifestations.
Heteronyms
The literary concept of heteronym, invented by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, refers to one or more imaginary
character(s) created by a poet to write in different styles. Heteronyms differ from nom de plumes (or pseudonyms,
from the Greek "False Name") in that the latter are just false names, while the former are characters having their
own supposed physiques, biographies and writing styles. In Pessoa's case, there are over 70 heteronyms, some of
them know each other, and criticise and translate each other's works. Pessoa's earliest heteronym, at the age of six,
was the Chevalier de Pas. Other childhood heteronyms included Dr Pancrácio and David Merrick, followed by
Charles Robert Anon and Alexander Search; these were eventually succeeded by others, most notably: Alberto
Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis and semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares. According to Pessoa, the heteronym
closest to his personality was Bernardo Soares, the author of Book of Disquiet.
Alberto Caeiro was Pessoa's first great heteronym; summarized by Pessoa, writing: "He sees things with the eyes
only, not with the mind. He does not let any thoughts arise when he looks at a flower... the only thing a stone tells
him is that it has nothing at all to tell him... this way of looking at a stone may be described as the totally unpoetic
way of looking at it. The stupendous fact about Caeiro is that out of this sentiment, or rather, absence of sentiment,
he makes poetry."
I have no ambitions and no desires.
To be a poet is not my ambition,
It's my way of being alone.
Alberto Caeiro: "The Keeper of Herds"
Ricardo Reis sums up his philosophy of life in his own words, admonishing: 'See life from a distance. Never question
it. There's nothing it can tell you.' Like Caeiro, whom he admires, Reis defers from questioning life. He is a modern
pagan who urges one to seize the day and accept fate with tranquility. 'Wise is the one who does not seek', he says;
and continues: 'the seeker will find in all things the abyss, and doubt in himself.' In this sense Reis shares essential
affinities with Caeiro.
Believing in the greek gods, yet living in a Christian Europe, Reis feels that his spiritual life is limited, and true
happiness cannot be attained. This, added to his belief in Fate as a driving force for all that exists, as such
disregarding freedom, leads to his stoic philosophy, which entails the avoidance of pain, defending that man should
seek tranquillity and calm above all else, avoiding emotional extremes.
As long as I feel the full breeze in my hair
And see the sun shining strong on the leaves,
I will not ask for more.
What better thing could destiny give me
Than the sensual passing of life in moments
Of ignorance like this?
Ricardo Reis
Álvaro de Campos manifests, in a way, as an hyperbolic version of Pessoa himself. Of the three heteronyms he is
the one who feels most strongly, his motto being 'to feel everything in every way.' 'The best way to travel,' he wrote,
'is to feel.' As such, his poetry is the most emotionally intense and varied, constantly juggling two fundamental
impulses: on the one hand a feverish desire to be and feel everything and everyone, declaring that 'in every corner of
my soul stands an altar to a different god '(alluding to Walt Whitman's desire to 'contain multitudes'), on the other, a
wish for a state of isolation and a sense of nothingness.
I'm nothing.
I'll always be nothing.
I can't want to be something.
But I have in me all the dreams of the world.
Álvaro de Campos: "The Tobacco Shop"
'Fernando Pessoa-himself' is not the 'real' Fernando Pessoa. Like Caeiro, Reis and Campos-- Pessoa 'himself'
embodies only aspects of the poet. Fernando Pessoa's personality is not stamped in any given voice; his personality is
diffused through the heteronyms. For this reason 'Fernando Pessoa-himself' stands apart from the poet proper.
The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.
Fernando Pessoa-himself: "Autopsychography"
...
“Why have one opinion when it might be possible to have them all? Why strain at the formation of one poetic "voice"
, creation, when it might be possible to have four -- or four dozen? T.S. Eliot, terrified by the idea of such
fragmentation in The Waste Land, fled into conservatism; Yeats reinvented himself as a kind of occult high priest.
Only PESSOA, selflessness itself, proved generous enough to distribute his substantial gift to everything, and everyone,
that was in him. The collapse of certainty in identity exemplified by PESSOA is echoed by every important artist in
our century, from Picasso and Kafka to Peter Handke and Cindy Sherman. For all their differences, the heteronyms
all circle painfully around the philosophic anxiety of the "I."
FERNANDO PESSOA - Biographical overview
When Pessoa was five years old, his father died of tuberculosis. A year later, his brother also died and his widowed
mother was remarried to the Portuguese consul in Durban, South Africa; the family moved to the city in 1896. The
young Pessoa received his early education in Durban and Cape Town, becoming fluent in the English language and
developing an appreciation for English poets such as William Shakespeare and John Milton. He then went back to
Lisbon, at the age of seventeen, attending a "Curso Superior de Letras" in a Portuguese university. A student strike
soon put an end to his studies, however, and Pessoa chose to study privately at home for a year. His term of study
ended and Pessoa found a job working as an assistant for a businessman, where he was charged with writing
correspondence and translating documents. In 1914, he and other artists and poets such as Almada Negreiros and
Mário de Sá Carneiro, created the literary magazine Orpheu that would introduce modern literature in Portugal. His
interest in the mystical led Pessoa to correspond with the occultist Aleister Crowley, later helping him to plan an
elaborate fake suicide when the latter visited Portugal in 1930. He translated Crowley's poem Hymn To Pan into
Portuguese.
Pessoa died of cirrhosis in 1935, almost unknown to the public and with only one book published: "Mensagem"
(Message).
> BACK
When Pessoa was five years old, his father died of tuberculosis. A year later, his brother also died and his widowed
mother was remarried to the Portuguese consul in Durban, South Africa; the family moved to the city in 1896. The
young Pessoa received his early education in Durban and Cape Town, becoming fluent in the English language and
developing an appreciation for English poets such as William Shakespeare and John Milton. He then went back to
Lisbon, at the age of seventeen, attending a "Curso Superior de Letras" in a Portuguese university. A student strike
soon put an end to his studies, however, and Pessoa chose to study privately at home for a year. His term of study
ended and Pessoa found a job working as an assistant for a businessman, where he was charged with writing
correspondence and translating documents. In 1914, he and other artists and poets such as Almada Negreiros and
Mário de Sá Carneiro, created the literary magazine Orpheu that would introduce modern literature in Portugal. His
interest in the mystical led Pessoa to correspond with the occultist Aleister Crowley, later helping him to plan an
elaborate fake suicide when the latter visited Portugal in 1930. He translated Crowley's poem Hymn To Pan into
Portuguese.
Pessoa died of cirrhosis in 1935, almost unknown to the public and with only one book published: "Mensagem"
(Message).
> BACK
Pessoa was a poet who refused to be himself. He was a poet of mirrors, of the
overlapping layers of consciousness, of the many facets of identity that refuse to
be unified under one rubric. Self, in Pessoa, was always in tension with Other.
As Edwin Honig commented, "The other contains the various fragments of an ‘I’
that the poet tries to mask and reveal at the same time." The masks Pessoa
employed are his “heteronyms” (his term), a system of alternative identities that
go beyond mere pseudonyms.
overlapping layers of consciousness, of the many facets of identity that refuse to
be unified under one rubric. Self, in Pessoa, was always in tension with Other.
As Edwin Honig commented, "The other contains the various fragments of an ‘I’
that the poet tries to mask and reveal at the same time." The masks Pessoa
employed are his “heteronyms” (his term), a system of alternative identities that
go beyond mere pseudonyms.
Fernando Pessoa
(Alberto Caeiro)(Ricardo Reis)(Álvaro de Campos)( Bernardo Soares)...
(Alberto Caeiro)(Ricardo Reis)(Álvaro de Campos)( Bernardo Soares)...