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The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis
A bilingual collection of exquisite poems and prose by one of Fernando Pessoa’s most famous “heteronyms,” Ricardo Reis
Here is the fourth in a series of volumes by Fernando Pessoa’s celebrated “heteronyms,” a coterie of writers that Pessoa created and conceived as distinct personalities, each with a unique literary style. Ricardo Reis was imagined as a melancholic doctor “with a darkish complexion,” a self-taught Hellenist who exiled himself in Brazil because he was a monarchist. In a 1914 letter to Pessoa, the writer Mário Sá-Carneiro described Reis’s odes as “admirable,” “a marvel of impersonality,” praising the way he “achieved a Horatian, classical novelty.’” Based on the definitive Tinta-da-China edition, published in Lisbon in 2016, this bilingual collection includes an illuminating introduction by Pessoa scholar Jerónimo Pizarro, facsimiles of original manuscripts, and prose excerpts written by Ricardo Reis on art, on life, and on the writings of Pessoa’s other heteronyms. Magnificently translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari, The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis is a must-have collection by one of Pessoa’s most refined heteronyms.
Here is the fourth in a series of volumes by Fernando Pessoa’s celebrated “heteronyms,” a coterie of writers that Pessoa created and conceived as distinct personalities, each with a unique literary style. Ricardo Reis was imagined as a melancholic doctor “with a darkish complexion,” a self-taught Hellenist who exiled himself in Brazil because he was a monarchist. In a 1914 letter to Pessoa, the writer Mário Sá-Carneiro described Reis’s odes as “admirable,” “a marvel of impersonality,” praising the way he “achieved a Horatian, classical novelty.’” Based on the definitive Tinta-da-China edition, published in Lisbon in 2016, this bilingual collection includes an illuminating introduction by Pessoa scholar Jerónimo Pizarro, facsimiles of original manuscripts, and prose excerpts written by Ricardo Reis on art, on life, and on the writings of Pessoa’s other heteronyms. Magnificently translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari, The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis is a must-have collection by one of Pessoa’s most refined heteronyms.
272 pages, Paperback
Published May 5, 2026
About the author
Fernando Pessoa
1,294 books6,580 followersFernando António Nogueira Pessoa was a poet and writer.
It is sometimes said that the four greatest Portuguese poets of modern times are Fernando Pessoa. The statement is possible since Pessoa, whose name means ‘person’ in Portuguese, had three alter egos who wrote in styles completely different from his own. In fact Pessoa wrote under dozens of names, but Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos were – their creator claimed – full-fledged individuals who wrote things that he himself would never or could never write. He dubbed them ‘heteronyms’ rather than pseudonyms, since they were not false names but “other names”, belonging to distinct literary personalities. Not only were their styles different; they thought differently, they had different religious and political views, different aesthetic sensibilities, different social temperaments. And each produced a large body of poetry. Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis also signed dozens of pages of prose.
The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda.
It is sometimes said that the four greatest Portuguese poets of modern times are Fernando Pessoa. The statement is possible since Pessoa, whose name means ‘person’ in Portuguese, had three alter egos who wrote in styles completely different from his own. In fact Pessoa wrote under dozens of names, but Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos were – their creator claimed – full-fledged individuals who wrote things that he himself would never or could never write. He dubbed them ‘heteronyms’ rather than pseudonyms, since they were not false names but “other names”, belonging to distinct literary personalities. Not only were their styles different; they thought differently, they had different religious and political views, different aesthetic sensibilities, different social temperaments. And each produced a large body of poetry. Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis also signed dozens of pages of prose.
The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 18, 2026
the fourth book in new directions’ series of new pessoa translations (after the book of disquiet and the complete works of both alberto caeiro and álvaro de campos), the latest collects the writings of epicurean neo-paganist heteronym ricardo reis (self-exiled monarchist physician). reis’ output is almost entirely poems (typically odes), but also includes some prose writing (with introductions to caeiro, his poetical “master”). composed with stoic resignation and a melancholia perhaps not too distant from bernardo soares’ own in the book of disquiet, reis' poems dwell most often on fate, the gods, being, and nature.
*translated from the portuguese by margaret jull costa and patricio ferrari
before we lived, the wind would blow,
when there was wind, through these same trees,
and the leaves would stir
no differently than now.
we pass and grow agitated, all in vain.
we make no more noise in the world
than the leaves of the trees
or the wind as it passes.
let us try then with assiduous abandon
to surrender all our efforts to nature
and require no more life
than do the green trees.
we struggle pointlessly to appear great.
apart from us, nothing in the wider world
bows to our greatness
or even serves us.
if here, on the seashore, with just three waves
the sea can wash away my footprint in the sand,
what will it do on that other beach
where saturn is the sea?
*translated from the portuguese by margaret jull costa and patricio ferrari
July 30, 2026
Even with the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I would say this is the best poetry collection I've read, and the one I'd like to keep to my side all throughout my life; these poems console and caress "us like wise old men accustomed to excusing life." My encounter with Reis's poems came much earlier, in different version of the book that collects Pessoa's poems; this new version by the publisher New Direction includes all the poems written by Reis (which is a made-up poet by the real Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa) in addition to his prose works.
Ricardo Reis orients his poems toward two goals: Calm soul (at absolutely all times) and aesthetics of the Greek civilization, which he considers purer than any aesthetics that came afterward.
"Let us love more calmly
Our own uncertain life."
"Calm, solemnly transient,
Given over to things and to my own life,
I seek not to live among the stars
But simply to live with myself."
His philosophy could be said in this one phrase:
"It is enough that life be simply life
And that I live it."
There is nothing abstruse about his poetry nor his philosophy. His thoughts as expressed in his simple poems caress us (and yes, that is the appropriate verb, caress); they imply that by simply existing, we've done all we could've done. The only important thing is to stay calm and embrace your life. He says, "If that's what happened, that is what's right."
The value is in the action taken, not the consequences. We need grace to accept consequences as they come. There is a higher power, conveniently called Destiny or sometimes God, and our stubborn resistance to the idea, as taught in a typical secular society, does not make us fare better. Our agency lies only in how we accept what happens, whether calmly or revoltingly. One should always choose calm.
Ricardo Reis orients his poems toward two goals: Calm soul (at absolutely all times) and aesthetics of the Greek civilization, which he considers purer than any aesthetics that came afterward.
"Let us love more calmly
Our own uncertain life."
"Calm, solemnly transient,
Given over to things and to my own life,
I seek not to live among the stars
But simply to live with myself."
His philosophy could be said in this one phrase:
"It is enough that life be simply life
And that I live it."
There is nothing abstruse about his poetry nor his philosophy. His thoughts as expressed in his simple poems caress us (and yes, that is the appropriate verb, caress); they imply that by simply existing, we've done all we could've done. The only important thing is to stay calm and embrace your life. He says, "If that's what happened, that is what's right."
The value is in the action taken, not the consequences. We need grace to accept consequences as they come. There is a higher power, conveniently called Destiny or sometimes God, and our stubborn resistance to the idea, as taught in a typical secular society, does not make us fare better. Our agency lies only in how we accept what happens, whether calmly or revoltingly. One should always choose calm.
July 16, 2026
Arrived bent out of shape, but at least the damage was not from my trunk. Why get bent out of shape over dreams?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews