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Ulysse's Reviews > Pessoa: An Experimental Life
Pessoa: An Experimental Life
by
Would you read a thousand-page biography
Of a person who had no life?
A person who didn't have a real job?
A person who wrote and drank and smoked his life away?
Who never changed the style of his dark suits?
Who went to the beach once and kept his dark suit on?
Who sat at the same tables of the same cafés with the same people drinking the same drinks smoking the same cigarettes day after day?
Who had his moustaches trimmed daily?
Whose eyes disappeared from behind thick glasses?
Who feared women like the plague?
Who preferred men but not carnally?
A person who only ever made love to his own brain?
Who changed his mind like one changes hats?
A nonentity who contained multitudes?
Who was Fernando on Monday
Alexander on Tuesday
Alberto on Wednesday
Alvaro on Thursday
Ricardo on Friday
Bernardo on Saturday
Nobody on Sunday?
A person who saw the universe in a tobacco shop
A Greek portico in the setting sun
A sunflower in a sunflower?
A person who never wrote about himself
But was in everything he wrote?
Who had no opinions about anything
But could see everything from every angle
Feel everything in every way possible?
Who was a conservative experimentalist
A prudish sensualist
A Rosicrucian and a Knight Templar
A one-man military dictatorship for individual freedom
A White Magician
An emperor of the Portuguese tongue
Who could barely complete a single task?
Who would start a poem a letter a story a business venture a plan to take over the world all on the same day
And by sundown all would be shelved incomplete?
A person who died at 47 having only published a slim volume of poems and some articles?
Who left behind some 30,000 scribbled-on pieces of paper in a large trunk?
A person whose name is now on the lips of pretty much anyone who cares about literature?
Whose poetry is tattooed on the flesh of non-virgins?
Whose songs will be sung by sailors yet unborn?
Would you read such a biography?
I would and I have
A month and a half of my life reading about a guy
Who had no life no job no nothing...
And let me tell you something
I would do it all over again
Just not today
by
Ulysse's review
bookshelves: 2024, biography, i-think-it-s-poetry, breathing-authors, re-verse-views
Oct 31, 2024
bookshelves: 2024, biography, i-think-it-s-poetry, breathing-authors, re-verse-views
Would you read a thousand-page biography
Of a person who had no life?
A person who didn't have a real job?
A person who wrote and drank and smoked his life away?
Who never changed the style of his dark suits?
Who went to the beach once and kept his dark suit on?
Who sat at the same tables of the same cafés with the same people drinking the same drinks smoking the same cigarettes day after day?
Who had his moustaches trimmed daily?
Whose eyes disappeared from behind thick glasses?
Who feared women like the plague?
Who preferred men but not carnally?
A person who only ever made love to his own brain?
Who changed his mind like one changes hats?
A nonentity who contained multitudes?
Who was Fernando on Monday
Alexander on Tuesday
Alberto on Wednesday
Alvaro on Thursday
Ricardo on Friday
Bernardo on Saturday
Nobody on Sunday?
A person who saw the universe in a tobacco shop
A Greek portico in the setting sun
A sunflower in a sunflower?
A person who never wrote about himself
But was in everything he wrote?
Who had no opinions about anything
But could see everything from every angle
Feel everything in every way possible?
Who was a conservative experimentalist
A prudish sensualist
A Rosicrucian and a Knight Templar
A one-man military dictatorship for individual freedom
A White Magician
An emperor of the Portuguese tongue
Who could barely complete a single task?
Who would start a poem a letter a story a business venture a plan to take over the world all on the same day
And by sundown all would be shelved incomplete?
A person who died at 47 having only published a slim volume of poems and some articles?
Who left behind some 30,000 scribbled-on pieces of paper in a large trunk?
A person whose name is now on the lips of pretty much anyone who cares about literature?
Whose poetry is tattooed on the flesh of non-virgins?
Whose songs will be sung by sailors yet unborn?
Would you read such a biography?
I would and I have
A month and a half of my life reading about a guy
Who had no life no job no nothing...
And let me tell you something
I would do it all over again
Just not today
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Reading Progress
September 17, 2024
–
Started Reading
September 17, 2024
– Shelved
October 31, 2024
– Shelved as:
2024
October 31, 2024
– Shelved as:
biography
October 31, 2024
– Shelved as:
i-think-it-s-poetry
October 31, 2024
– Shelved as:
breathing-authors
October 31, 2024
– Shelved as:
re-verse-views
October 31, 2024
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-42 of 42 (42 new)
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Muito obrigado, Celeste! Que sonhador de pessoas esse Pessoa!
You've now composed your epic, Ulysse!I have this. I couldn't afford it, until my little used bookshop had a copy for $4. It was some kind of publisher's copy with no dustcover and all the title pages removed. But all the words are there. And I have only read it in bits and pieces. Epics are beyond me at the moment.
He was a surprising person. That trunk has us all mesmerised. He was extra-ordinary.
Wow .. this review is a work of art in itself!
Nick wrote: "Epics are beyond me at the moment."It is definitely an epic, Nick. It took Zenith 13 years to write, which is 5 years longer than it took Joyce to write Ulysses. It is perhaps unnecessarily long, but it does contain a vanished world in its thousand pages, and in the right mood it's good to bury oneself under such an avalanche of words. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Zelda wrote: "Wow .. this review is a work of art in itself!"That's quite the compliment, Zelda, thank you very much!
Pessoa has always been an unknown quantity to me, Ulysse. How have you managed to increase that quantity:-)
Pessoa was not a person you could count on, Fionnuala, for he was not a person you could count.
Fionnuala wrote: "Pessoa has always been an unknown quantity to me, Ulysse. How have you managed to increase that quantity:-)"He has no quantity, Fi. I think he might be air.
I will breathe him in one of these years.
It's possible you already have.
Ulysse wrote: "Pessoa was not a person you could count on, Fionnuala, for he was not a person you could count."No one has counted them all. he is innumerable.
Who feared women like the plague?Who preferred men but not carnally?
I missed this joke - he was heteronymic
Nick wrote: "It's possible you already have."Well, maybe second-hand via Tabbuchi.
Fionnuala wrote: "Nick wrote: "It's possible you already have."Well, maybe second-hand via Tabbuchi."
Yes! Tabucchi and Saramago were his heirs.
Take a deep breath Fionnuala because the word on the street has it he was a little larger than the entire universe�
Only a little larger? I can maybe do that......
What very big nostrils you must have, Fionnuala!
Nick, what Tabucchi novel does Pessoa feature in?
He wasn't mentioned by name in Requiem: A Hallucination, I think, but his essence wafted through all the Lisbon streets in that book, it seemed too me—though how I knew that, I don't know...
Ulysse wrote: "Nick, what Tabucchi novel does Pessoa feature in?"What Fionnuala said.
Pessoa also appears as himself in the novel The Year in the Death of Ricardo Reis by Saramago.
Thanks Fionnuala, I might give those pages a sniff one of these days.
Nick, I read that one back when I was a serious student of Portuguese. I hardly remember a thing apart from a love scene involving a cleaning lady in Lisbon.
Ulysse wrote: "Nick, I read that one back when I was a serious student of Portuguese. I hardly remember a thing apart from a love scene involving a cleaning lady in Lisbon."What a great thing you did back then, Ulysse. So you read Pessoa in the original?
I did. He’s surprisingly easy to read in that language even with a basic level, especially Caeiro and Campos.
Hi Ulysse, to answer your question about Tabucchi, there is also this one here: /review/show... Not bad but not great. For the fans!
Jeroen wrote: "Hi Ulysse, to answer your question about Tabucchi, there is also this one here: /review/show... Not bad but not great. For the fans!"
Yes! But I have lost my copy, it's not on the shelf, so I had forgotten it. This is very troubling, I'm going to have to pull the house apart looking for it, or lose a lot of hair.
Don’t worry Nick, you can buy a lot of books with what you save in shampoo!
Have you found it Nick or are you bald now?
Hair or books: the dilemma to end all dilemmas!
Hunting for a book we know we own can be a very frustrating experience—and if it's a slim book, nearly impossible. Even when it comes to fat books, I often look over the shelves many times before the book pops out at me, so obvious in the end but so inexplicably invisible at the beginning.It strikes me that it's a bit like your Pessoa paradoxes, Ulysse—which were very good, by the way.
Very true, Fionnuala. Is it a blessing or a curse to own so many books we can spend days (and shed hair) hunting down a slim volume misplaced? Mine are spread over two continents and four different adresses. One can always find me by following the trail of books I’ve left behind ;-)
Ulysse wrote: "Have you found it Nick or are you bald now?"I haven't found it. But maybe I should wear a nice hat just in case.
Fionnuala wrote: "Hunting for a book we know we own can be a very frustrating experience—and if it's a slim book, nearly impossible. Even when it comes to fat books, I often look over the shelves many times before t..."I've found that fat books often consume slim books. Which shows how competitive publishing can be.
Maybe that’s why the fat books are fat?
Incidentally, I’ve just finished reading a book by César Aira whose Twiggy-like thinness makes most books seem obese in comparison.
Ulysse wrote: "Incidentally, I’ve just finished reading a book by César Aira whose Twiggy-like thinness makes most books seem obese in comparison."I suspect Aira's books are too lean for the fat books that are likely hooked on word-carbs.
Nick wrote: "I suspect Aira's books are too lean for the fat books that are likely hooked on word-carbs."Books and their beach bods all covered o'er with tattooed blurbs.
Oh man - Ulysse, this is one stellar review mate. You told me so much about this man - much of him, I was able to identify with it seems. This bit Who feared women like the plague?Who preferred men but not carnally?.......applied to me at High School. Things changed at Uni. I think I spoke to a girl once as High School (asking for my football back) - and I went so red, you could have fried an egg on my face.
How about your line only ever made love to his own brain? Great writing.
But, your ending made me sad Ulyssee. Sad for him. Regarding his writing - do people wirte for others or for themselves? I had to think about that when I learned Harper Lee was a prolific writer too - but didn't publish much at all. I reckon, some writers do write for themselves only - what do you say?
5 stars review mate. The only reason I'm not reading this book is it's too long - and your review is good enough for me!!
Mark wrote: "I reckon, some writers do write for themselves only - what do you say?"Thank you for all the encouragement, Mark, I really appreciate it :-)
Although Pessoa was a bit of a social outcast and probably died a virgin, it sounded like he made peace with that, and from an early age he knew he was writing for posterity. And in spite of very few published books he did belong to a tight-knit community of writers and artists in Lisbon, most of whom promptly recognised his genius and hailed him as the best writer of his generation. He didn't really seem to care, though. He wrote and wrote because he had to; he was pretty much hopeless at everything else.
I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who write only for themselves or for a handful of friends, real or imaginary.
There is a larger than life bronze version of him - sitting - hat plus glasses, suit opposite café A Brasileira, 120 Rua Garrett. I'll give him a nod for you tomorrow when I'm in Lisboa.
Hi Laura, I know that statue, I've sat next to it on several occasions hoping to have a conversation with the world's most enigmatic poet. All I got was pigeon droppings and a cold stare. You might have better luck with Fernando than I did 😉Have fun in Lisbon. I love that city!
"A person who saw the universe in a tobacco shop" e tinha em si todos os sonhos do mundo.