Self-Analysis and thirty other Poems

by Fernando Pessoa, George Monteiro (Translator), André Carrilho (Illustration)

Bilingual edition: Japanese / Português

Antologia bilingue que engloba uma fina seleção de poemas de Fernando Pessoa ortónimo e dos seus mais importantes heterónimos: Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos e Ricardo Reis.

Um livro ideal para quem se quer iniciar na poesia de um dos maiores poetas mundiais do século XX.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

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

[Yasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

These 30 poems were poignant and beautiful in different ways. Pessoa writes eerily, romantically, cynically, but also quite simply. I like a poem that is nothing but the right words put together - as simple as that, just words agencés précisément. Nothing is superfluous, and it's all coming from some ashy, sincere place in his soul.

Martial Ode shook me to my core - I can't think of another poem that has had that effect on me.

Others vary in themes and intensity, and maybe I'll follow in Alban's steps and try to memorize my favorites.

[Linz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations are pretty.

I don’t get Pessoa I think. His poetry is very sentimental and shows a lot of black and white thinking, mommy issues and a very egocentric perspective. It lacks nuance, which is what I look for in poetry.
I do, however, think it reflects Portuguese sentiment: strong emotions and emotional reactions to a dynamic and ever-changing world.

Perhaps I am more used to a more dry, Dutch view on the world.

[Dennis Hendriks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik lees normaal geen poëzie maar dit was geweldie.

[Katie Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really felt more of a 2.5 stars, but I rounded up for the book’s benefit. I think I kind of missed the point of this, but the Alberto Caeiro ones were the best.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the book as a gift.

The poetry itself was enjoyable but I found myself referring to the Portuguese (I have the Bi-Lingual Edition) because things didn’t feel right. Some of the word choice of the translator may have been accurate but didn’t capture the feeling of what I felt the poet was achieving in his own language (which I know makes Poetry very difficult to translate). I didn’t like that the translator took liberty with punctuation (choosing to omit nearly all ellipsis and in one case fabricating parenthesis), as I feel like a series of periods has a different meaning than a singular.

I will refer to the poets words themselves to sum my feelings “[…]/But to say I was happy to see it: nothing else.”

[Mara Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pessoa was a brilliant poet. Direct and emotive, his writing brings the reader into his world with few, perfectly-selected words arced into fluid lines. He captures both the universal and specifically Portuguese life, loss, seas, sun, and saudade as Portugal's most beloved poet.

As a poet with four nom-de-plumes, Pessoa explores thoughts from four perspectives - each unique, but equally reflective.

Everyone seems drawn to the poetry written by his persona of Álvaro de Campos and they aren't wrong.

"Poem - straight to the point" captures the isolation of self-doubt when everyone around you appears to be thriving, yet it was written decades before social media and SSRIs. Powerfully universal.

"I have never known anyone who has taken a beating.
Everyone of my acquaintance has been a champion in everything.

And I, who have so often been shabby, filthy, contemptible,
So often unaccountably parasitic...."

That's just the beginning. It captures those intense feelings of personal internal rejection perfectly.

"Tripe, Porto Style" is about receiving love in a form that you don't want, didn't ask for, but that's what you get. It was one of our favourites because it required days of thinking about. (You may be smarter than us, but we were thrilled when we understood it fully.)

"Martial Ode" is chilling and would apply to us all in our collective guilt for the society we live in.

"I was to blame for everything, I was the policeman who killed them all, raped and burned and broke them..... I, captain, ordered the trembling peasants shot."

"The Thing about me is that I'm Tired" is a great poem.

"Not tired of this or that
Nor even tired of everything -- or nothing.
Just tired. Tired, plain tired.
Period."

Pessoa is also brilliant writing as his own persona, of course. That's where he speaks directly to Portuguese experience of loss at sea, saudade, self-reflection. Not Portuguese myself, I can only imagine that it has many more layers of meaning than I get.

My only quibble is that occasionally the English translation seems to be correct, yet without the same impact as the original Portuguese. But I'm sure it is impossible to please everyone with the translation of every phrase.

Worth reading to explore life further in 31 brief, brilliant poems.

P.S. - the illustrations alone are worth the price. They are SO good!

[Rafe French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this book up at the oldest bookstore in the world during my trip to Lisbon last year. One of my favorite souvenirs of recent memory as it is stamped with authenticity from the historical bookstore. Pessoa is well known in the city and across Portugal and I even got to see where he used to live. It’s impressive to see him create so many unique personalities and perspectives with his various heteronyms. His works under the name Alberto Caeiro were my favorite from this book with his Campos persona being my second favorite. As always with translations I feel there is some depth and passion lost in the English versions of these Portuguese poems; however, I still enjoyed the read. Will definitely be revisiting these poems in future years.

[Zo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

a collection of poems by pessoa and his heteronyms caeiro, de campos and reis

each persona has a distinct voice and deals with its own unique subjects. I enjoyed alvaro de campos’ poems the most for their witty, satirical (i assume) and storytelling nature.

reis is more whimsical and caeiro and pessoa both deal with grief, insecurity and a slight sense of existentialism (perhaps even slightly nihilist in some poems)

overall, there is a theme of grief, guilt and remembering within the existential overtone; many of the poems reference war and death due to war, likely influenced by WW1 (pessoa worked as a foreign correspondent in lisbon).

pessoa also authored the book of disquiet under another pseudonym.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings with this one but that’s probably a product of the challenges with translating poetry, and my limited Portuguese vocabulary could only get me so far with the original texts. Of Pessoa and his heteronyms, I think I liked the work of Álvaro de Campos best—I marked up his poems the most—but my favorite poem was one by Alberto Caeiro (“Li hoje quase duas páginas”). I don’t know a lot about translating text, but I will say that it felt like some of the rhythm and the meandering thoughts that seem characteristic of Pessoa’s style were lost in the English. I’m looking forward to going through these again when my Portuguese is stronger.

[Raluca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sofro, Lidia, do medo do destino.
A leve pedra que un momento ergue
As lisas rodas do meu carro, attera
Meu coração.

The whole thing about Pessoa's heteronyms is, at least to this particular reader in 2023, more interesting than "their" works. But yeah, you can tell "they" write quite differently. Reis seems to hit the best for me right now. Also, English translations of Latin languages, especially for poetry, are necessarily shaky - Monteiro does a decent job, but there were multiple instances where it changed what the kids would call the vibe.

[T C. Humes · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my first collection of poetries, this book was a gift from a beloved friend of mine. Admittedly, the first 5-12 poems were not ones that caught my particular attention, but from "This" (in the untranslated text, "Itso") onwards every poem was thoughtfully entertaining if not meaningfully profound. Other favourites were "she sings, poor reaper, thinking," "reaper," "ligeia," "straight to the point," and "psyche-typing". Overall a short read, it made me want to read more collections of poetry in the future.

[Elita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Pessoa last year and this is the third book of his that I am reading, so he really left an impression on me.
I enjoyed this collection of his poetry a lot and while I do agree that sometimes the translations don‘t transmit the exact feeling as the original, this one does a pretty good job in general. Pessoa‘s writing is so worth reading and this will be a book I‘ll keep on my bag at all times.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

i picked up this book as a souvenir last summer in portugal. i make it a tradition to bring back a representative book from each country i visit, bringing home with me a piece of that place.

the story of pessoa seemed to follow me everywhere in lisbon. usually, i shy away from reading poetry in translation, as something often gets lost. i felt that way here, too. i found some poems captivating, others less so. yet, the ones that spoke to me did so profoundly, making me appreciate the entire collection.

i'll check The Book of Disquiet as well.

[Borja Santos Perea · Rating 4 out of 5]

En mi caso ha sido la versión en castellano. Llevaba años sin leer poesía, y la verdad que lo he disfrutado. El personaje en sí (que no conocía), con sus diferentes heterónimos ya merece la pena, aunque en este libro apenas se diferencie esa "vida propia" que tenía cada uno de ellos.

[Julieth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descubrí a Pessoa en 2022 cuando trabajé en la feria del libro y lo preguntaban muchísimo.
No sé cuantas almas tengo y Poema en Línea recta llegaron a mí en mi peor momento, supongo que en esos momentos es cuando de verdad entiendes la poesía.

[Zack]

Purchased at the oldest bookstore in the world (in this poet’s city, no less)! Solid introduction to Pessoa, but feels like I only scratched the surface—and these translations leave a lot to be desired

[Joana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Eleni Stavrianou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice introduction to Pessoa and his other "personalities". The reader can get a glimpse into the world of Pessoa, Caeiro, Campos, Reis. Made me want to explore more.

[Carlota Alonso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Álvaro de Campos was my favourite heteronym, best:
1. The thing about me is that I am tired
2. Psyche-typing
3. Clearly non-campos!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up quite randomly at a small store in Porto. I had not heard of Pessoa prior to this. His poetry has moved me.

[Morgan Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel many of these poems are very very beautiful, but the rhythm and impact are lost in the translation :(

[Dee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Books like this make me hate poetry.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the book's bilingual approach, which helped improve my Portuguese and also made Pessoa's poems more accessible. Some of them are heavy and dark, others more philosophical. The difference between his multiple personas/styles (which ironically ties in with his name) are quite pronounced and you wonder what kind of person Pessoa really was on the inside.

[Joana Aguiar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uma forma simples de conhecer Pessoa e os estilos dos diferentes heterónimos. E achei piada a ler algumas das traduções para inglês.