I am the size of whatever I see

by Fernando Pessoa

Genres: Poetry, Classics

88 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2025

About the author

Fernando 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.

Reviews

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got it as a present for myself while visiting Lisbon.
Great decision!
I particularly enjoyed Ricardo Reis’s work, which leaned heavily into making the most of the now, but beautiful pieces throughout.

[Ev.Ani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was convinced to buy as the shopkeep at the Bertrand bookstore told me it’s a collection by a well known Portuguese author.

Having finished it was a delightful read and introduction to Pessoa, his heteronyms were interesting and fun to read. Below are some of my favourite lines; for memories sake.

Fernando Passos:

“To the sea God gave danger and the abyss,
But as heaven’s mirror it also exists”

Alberto Caerio:

“From my village I see as much land as is seen anywhere in the Universe…
That’s why my village is as large as any other land,
Because I am the size of whatever I see
And not my actual height…”

Ricardo Reis:

“Chase your destiny,
Water your plants,
Love your roses.
The rest is shade
From other people’s trees.”

Álvaro De Campos:

“When I wanted to take off the mask,
It was stuck to my face.
When I took it off and saw myself in the mirror,
I had already aged.”

[Clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

When in Lisabon måste man köpa och läsa portugisisk poesi... Aldrig läst (eller hört om Pessoa) tidigare men verkar som en intressant karl med flera pseudonym med olika påhittade bakgrunder och litterära stilar. I denna diktsamling har olika dikter av olika pseudonym samlats. Vissa dikter (pseudonym) gillar jag starkt medan andra inte föll mig i smaken alls... Alltså en trea...

[Soph · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A pox on you and on all who live life wanting to invent a machine that manufactures happiness.”
- Alberto Caeiro, aka Fernando Pessoa

Boekje dat ik heb gekocht in Lissabon in de oudste nog bestaande boekenwinkel in de wereld: Bertrand (anno 1732)!

[Celina Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 det eneste der ville gøre den bedre var, hvis den var skrevet af en kvinde

[Matt Salo · Rating 5 out of 5]

New favorite poet

[Polina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wow. I can’t believe I didn’t know about Pessoa earlier. A man who felt so many different things that he created three literary alter egos to write poetry. Not just pen names, but fully developed personalities with different vocabularies, philosophies, temperaments, and even different sentence lengths. So this collection contains not one poet, but four. And they’re all completely different.

Fun fact: when Pessoa died, José Saramago wrote a novel about one of his fictional alter egos, Ricardo Reis. In it, Pessoa and Ricardo meet in Lisbon. Now that’s a crossover. Which means Ricardo Reis, if you think about it, died later than his creator?

I still don’t know how to explain what these poems are about. Existential crisis? Loneliness? A desperate attempt to stop thinking? The desire to feel everything and nothing at the same time? Maybe that’s why Pessoa had to become four different poets.

[Emma Struebing]

My friend brought this back for me from Portugal, and while I can’t say I’m super drawn to reading poetry, I love this one a little extra because this friend thought of me and brought it to me.

I liked the poetry written by heteronym Alberto Caeiro the best, or at least resonated with it the most. In general, Fernando Pessoa is quite the existential guy!

[Layal Baroud · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 ⭐
I got this book in Lisbon and the bookstore worker recommended it to me. absolute masterpiece!!!

[grace kt · Rating 4 out of 5]

poetry! yeah!

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduced to Pessoa as part of my course in Portugal. He fascinated me and I really enjoyed getting to know his heteronyms better

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting philosophy / worldview to dig into. There is a lack of emotion and feeling in Pessoa’s worldview, and it’s pretty melancholic. At first i thought to myself “god how can anyone bear to think this way?”, but it got more fascinating as it went on. My favourite piece in here is “There is metaphysics aplenty in thinking about nothing” - it's really wonderful! Surprisingly, although i was craving for him to express some sort of feeling about the world, I found the work under the heteronym Álvaro De Campos the least engaging.

[Regulus Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought some of Pessoa’s books from the Bertrand Bookshop after searching for a specific copy of the Book of Disquiet for years. Saw this and decided, while in line, to take it too as it seemed interesting.

I am so glad I picked this up.

Pessoa’s writings will always elicit this sense of saudade within me. I feel homesick, and yet I feel immense love for where I am currently. Reading his works reminds me of my childhood, of devouring bits and pieces of his works online through scraps and quotes, not having enough money to buy books or being unable to find any of his books in the Philippines.

Of all the poems written in this short book, these three are the ones with lines that struck my soul:

Fernando Pessoa

Love, when you reveal it

“Love, when you reveal it,
Has no idea how to be revealed.”

“I write things I thought I felt.
I re-read and say: “Was that me?”
God knows, because he wrote it.”

I have so much feeling

“There is so much tenderness
In saying nothing
And understanding everything--“

Alberto Caeiro

There is metaphysics aplenty in thinking about nothing

“The only intimate sense of things
Is not having any intimate sense at all.”

-

“I don’t believe in God because I’ve never seen him.
If he wanted me to believe in him,
No doubt he would come speak with me
And would walk through my front door
And call, “Here I am!””

-

“But if God is the flowers and the trees
And the hills and the sun and the moon,
Then I believe in him,
Then I believe in him all the time,
And my entire life is a prayer and a mass,
And a communion with my eyes and my ears.”

-

“I obey him by living, spontaneously,
As someone who opens his eyes and sees,
And I call him moon and sun and flowers and trees and hills,
And I love him without thinking about him,
And I think of him seeing and hearing,
And I walk with him all the time.”

[Chi Dao · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collection of poems that brilliantly portraits the many “persons” within one of the greatest Portuguese writers. To me I felt a melancholy yet romantic poet from Lisbon; a free spirited young man with a childlike mindset, dreaming and knowing so well what really matters in this world, and sharing his views to the world from his meadow; a philosopher with contradicting mind; and a man pouring out his rage and despair in rhythm from the darkest corner of his soul and yet still so beautiful. Surely I’d come back to read these poems again and again and again.

[Wyame · Rating 5 out of 5]

“All of us who are alive
Have one life that is lived
And another life that is imagined,
And the only life we have
Is this one that’s divided
Between truth and error.

That said, nobody knows
How to explain which is truth
And which is error”

Souvenir from the oldest library in the world, Bertrand, in Lisbon.
Solo trip 2026

[T]

there were really same bangers in here. also Pessoa was an interesting guy—he wrote under different names, for which he created entire backstories and chose different styles to write his poems. the threads I saw through all of them was this: solitude and the lack of desire to draw meaning out of things because of the desolation it can cause and how you are not your feelings and you are not your thoughts.

“I don’t know how many souls I have,” he writes. “I am in constant motion. … aware of things I am and see, / I become them and not me.”

I liked the poems that were written under his own name the best, most likely bc they were a majority of this book.

“In the margins of what I read
I write things I thought I felt.
I re-read and say: “Was that me?””

[Vanessa Amaral · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man who felt so many different things at the same time he created three alter egos to write his poetry. All different personalities with writing styles and views.. it felt like reading four different poetry collections.. a man who embodied loneliness, multiple crisis and continuously expressed the need to stop of overthinking. He felt everything all at once and nothing at the same time. Perhaps that was the need for him to be four different poets .. perhaps that why I loved this book of poems so much.
“Não sei quantas almas tenho.
Cada momento mudei.
Continuamente me estranho.
Nunca me vi nem achei.
De tanto ser, só tenho alma.
Quem tem alma não tem calma.
Quem vê é só o que vê,
Quem sente não é quem é,”

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I don't know how many souls I have.
I've been in constant motion.
I continually alienate myself.
I've never seen or found myself.
After so much being, all I have is soul.
Anyone who has a soul knows no peace.
Anyone who sees is only what they see,
Anyone who feels is not who they are”

Pessoa is extremely intriguing. The fact alone that he used heteronyms and wrote poetry according to each is sensational. Additionally, his poems just reach a level of sensitivity that makes you feel seen in the most intimate way while never having met him.

[Arvis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another collection by Mr Pessoa, now that I’m done with the souvenirs from Portugal I doubt I’ll be revisiting him any time soon.

The melancholy and detachment in his style of poetry just doesn’t mesh well with me. Me and him are both dramatic in such different ways that I just can’t get on board with it all too much. Maybe it’s the translation, maybe it’s just me but I’m not really planning on learning Portuguese to find out which one it is :/

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

My tour guide at Jeronimos Monastery said as we overlooked Fernado Pessoa's grave to go to the oldest operating book shop in the world and get a copy of Pessoas poetry with a stamp saying you got the book at Bertrands. So guess what I did. Wonderful poetry and a testament that your whole life can get passed by yet you only become discovered after death. What does it mean to have an impact if you arent around to see it.

[indiaminnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

“from my village i see as much of the universe as can be seen from the earth/ and so my village is as large as any town/ for i am the size of what i see/ and not the size of my height”

got as a souvenir in lisbon from the oldest book store in the world. i nice collection of poems by famous portuguese poet fernando pessoa.

[Beatriz Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compré este librito en la librería (en funcionamiento) más antigua del mundo, en un viaje con amigas a Lisboa. Conocía a Pessoa pero nunca había leído nada suyo con atención, y me ha encantado. Especialmente me he quedado prendada de su heterónimo Alberto Caeiro y de sus poemas sobre la naturaleza, sobre dios, sobre su forma de mirar el mundo, porque “nuestra única fortuna es el mirar”

[Victoria Click]

breaking my reading slump!

i’m not 100% sure if this is the same edition but i bought this collection of poems by fernando pessoa called “i am the size of whatever i see” translated by calvin olsen in lisbon

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read a lot of poetry, but I picked up this book when I was in Lisbon at the oldest operating bookstore.

It was a really quick read, only about a 100 pages of short to medium length poems. Some I found more profound than others.

But otherwise, a good read.

4/5 stars

[S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a short collection,and it did convey the spirit of Pessoa. However there were a few grammatical issues with the copy that I think happened during the translation.
But I think I prefer the prose of Pessoa rather than his poetry.

[Dani B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ This was my first encounter with Pessoa’s poetry, and I found it really interesting, very different from any poet I had read before. His split personality heteronyms were cool to discover as well.

[Jojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been trying to fully digest the book of disquiet (which I still haven’t finished), but this is a great way back into it. Never been a big poetry fan but this was a pleasant read. My favorites: Love, when you reveal it, If I could bite the whole Earth, Birthday.

[Will Haslam]

I respect Pessoa as a great poet, but I didn’t find that he nor any of his heteronyms greatly satisfied my personal poetic tastes. At their worst, I found them indulgently self-pitying. At their best, thought-provoking and transcendent.

[Haley Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[BooksRgood · Rating 3 out of 5]

wonderful title, the poems didn't wow me much.