Fernando Pessoa and his Heteronyms: Ricardo Reis

Fernando Pessoa and his Heteronyms: Ricardo Reis


Fernando Pessoa is a melancholic Portuguese poet and writer who created heteronyms (alter egos with different personalities and writing styles) to express his thoughts  in his writing. Fernando Pessoa created a total of 80 heteronyms but the three who have the most extensive body of work and that are most fleshed out are Albert Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Alvaro De Campos. I am currently reading "A Little Larger than the Entire Universe" which is a collection of Pessoa's poetry. I want to share some of his work with the world so I will be highlighting his poetry as well as the poetry of the three heteronyms mentioned above.  This is an appreciation post- I want to appreciate Pessoa and I want to share writing that has helped me cope through these difficult times. His poetry is peace for me.



Let's move on to Ricardo Reis, a "Greek Horace writing in Portuguese". Reis composed metered, non-rhyming odes about the vanity of life and the need to accept our fate. Here are some of his thought provoking lines.



"Wise the man who's content with the world's spectacle,
And who drinks without recalling
That he has drunk before,
For whom everything is new
And forever imperishable"

"and to erase the taste of time"

"Only in the illusion of freedom
Does freedom exist"

"and life grieves for it knows it's passing"

"be glad to be who you cannot resist being"

"Let's fulfill what we are
Nothing more are we given"

"The leaf won't return to the branch it left,
Nor from it's dust will a new leaf be formed.
The moment which ends as this one begins,
Has died forever"

"How many enjoy the enjoyment of enjoying
Without enjoying their enjoyment, and divide it
Between themselves and others"

"The morning breeze caresses the field"

"No one loves anyone else, he loves
What he finds of himself in the other"

"Be who you are, even if never loved
Secure in yourself, you will suffer
Few sorrows"

" To be great, be whole: don't exaggerate
Or leave out any part of you.
Be complete in each thing. Put all you are
Into the least of your acts"

"Learn what your body,
Your boundary, teaches you"

"Each day you didn't enjoy wasn't yours... whatever you live with your enjoying you don't live"

"Happy those who placing their delight
In slight things, are never deprived of each day's natural fortune!"

"Let us prefer the pleasure of the moment
to an absurd concern with the future
Whose only certainty  is the harm we suffer now
To pay for it's prosperity
Tomorrows doesn't exist. This moment
Alone is mine and I am only who
Exists in this instant which might be the last
of the self I pretend to be"

"Hope for nothing that's not already in you
Each man in himself is everything"

"In this calm moment when I feel myself
By loving more than by being
I love all existence and myself"

"Hatred and love both seek us out
Both oppress us, each in it's own way
Those whom the Gods grant nothing are free"