The Book of Disquiet
Page 55
428 [4/82–3, ms.]
neighbourhood of the great Mystery: ‘neighbourhood of God’ (alternate version)
429 [5/31–2, ms.] Dated 18 September 1917.
430 [5/27, ms.]
certain madmen: ‘systematized lunatics’ (alternate version)
431 [1/47, typed]
432 [3/43, ms.]
433 [2/29, typed] Dated 7 April 1933.
434 [4/35, typed]
435 [1/27, typed]
436 [1/38–40, mixed]
painful to my heart: ‘painful to my consciousness’ (alternate version) to life as to an enormous yoke: ‘to life, to the abstract yoke of God’/‘to life, stretching it across the window as across a guillotine’ (alternate versions)
437 [2/18, typed] Dated 29 August 1933.
438 †[94/16, ms.]
439 [1/29, ms.]
440 [3/28, typed]
441 [2/19, typed] 8 September 1933.
442 [2/71, typed]
443 [5/8a, ms.]
444 [2/34, ms.]
445 [4/53, typed] 18 September 1933.
446 [1/5, typed] This and the next two passages were found in the large envelope where Pessoa placed material for The Book of Disquiet, but they undoubtedly belonged to his projected essay on Omar Khayyám, for which various other passages were written. Perhaps Pessoa, giving up on the fragmentary essay, decided to include parts of it in The Book of Disquiet.
Tarde: See note for Text 238.
Dean Aldrich: Henry Aldrich (1647–1710), the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, was a humanist of many vocations, from theology to architecture. Pessoa did not record Aldrich’s epigram, ‘Reasons for Drinking’, on the manuscript copy of this passage about Khayyám, but he evidently meant to fill in the blank space later with his own translation of the verses into Portuguese, found elsewhere among the thousands of papers he left. it was a Greek: Glykon.
447 [1/4, mixed] The following epithet appears at the end of the passage: The Persian poet, Master of disconsolation and disillusion.
448 [1/2, typed]
449 [4/52, typed] Dated 2 November 1933.
450 [1/49, typed]
almost human sound: ‘harsh and humble sound’ (alternate version)
451 [2/51, typed]
‘Any road, this simple Entepfuhl road… World’: From Thomas Carlyle, cf. Text 138.
452 [2/52, typed]
453 †[9/41, ms.]
454 [1/85, typed]
in the news: ‘in progress’ (alternate version)
455 [4/55, ms.] Dated 23 December 1933.
456 [4/56–7, ms.] Dated 31 March 1934.
457 [7/3, ms.]
458 [2/11, typed]
Praça da Figueira: One of Lisbon’s downtown squares, which in Pessoa’s day was taken up by a public market.
459 [2/2, ms.]
460 [2/47, typed]
461 [5/59, ms.]
462 [5/10, typed]
463 [7/39, typed] Dated 5 June 1934.
464 [6/16, typed]
Poe’s Egaeus: From the short story ‘Berenice’.
465 [6/15, typed] Dated 9 June 1934.
466 [5/35, ms.]
467 [28/26, ms.]
468 [5/12, typed] Dated 19 June 1934.
Peter Schlemihl: The protagonist of Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, published in 1814 by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838).
469 [9/11, ms.]
470 [144Y/52, ms.]
471 [5/33, typed] Dated 21 June 1934.
472 [7/49, ms.] Dated 29 June 1934.
epopt: An initiate in the highest order of the Eleusinian mysteries.
473 [7/50, ms.] Dated 26 July 1934.
474 [112/9, ms.]
475 [133G/30, ms.]
Amiel: See note for Text 72.
476 [5/69, ms.]
477 [3/8, ms.]
478 [1/26, ms.] The parenthetical heading is in English in the original.
479 [2/31, ms.]
480 [1/78, ms.]
481 [6/17, typed]
A Disquiet Anthology
ADVICE TO UNHAPPILY MARRIED WOMEN (I) [5/65, ms.]
Cesare Borgia: Cited by Machiavelli as a prime example of the modern ‘prince’, Cesare (c. 1475–1507) was one of the most notorious members of the politically ruthless Borgia clan.
ADVICE TO UNHAPPILY MARRIED WOMEN (II) [5/8a, ms.]
ADVICE TO UNHAPPILY MARRIED WOMEN (III) [1141/97, ms.] No title appears on the manuscript, but Pessoa almost certainly had his ‘Advice’ to unhappy wives in mind.
APOCALYPTIC FEELING [7/23–7, ms.]
THE ART OF EFFECTIVE DREAMING (I) [15B1/96, ms.]
THE ART OF EFFECTIVE DREAMING (II) [5/5, ms.]
you can leave for tomorrow: ‘you can likewise not do tomorrow’ (alternate version)
THE ART OF EFFECTIVE DREAMING (III) [9/23a, ms.]
THE ART OF EFFECTIVE DREAMING FOR METAPHYSICAL MINDS [144D2/46–50, ms.]
I’m a character of: ‘I’m bits of characters from’ (alternate version) CASCADE [5/6, ms.]
when life is negated: ‘when love is negated’ (alternate version)
CENOTAPH [5/15–16, typed] The sixth paragraph is followed by two incomplete phrases, which Pessoa presumably thought of incorporating into a revised version of this text:
– of simple heroism, with no heaven to win through martyrdom, nor humanity to save through struggle; of the old pagan race that belongs to the City and outside of which all are barbarians and enemies.
– but with the emotion of the son who loves his mother because she is his mother and not because he is her son.
DECLARATION OF DIFFERENCE [5/56, typed]
DIVINE ENVY [4/65–6, ms.]
Cais do Sodré: See note for Text 16.
FUNERAL MARCH †[138A/33–4, ms.]
FUNERAL MARCH FOR LUDWIG II, KING OF BAVARIA [4/59–63, 138A/56, ms.] The following phrases, which Pessoa perhaps meant to incorporate into a revised version of this text (along with several other fragmentary passages that have turned up in his archives), appear at the end of the manuscript copy:
… and in the background Death…
Your coming glows in the sunset, in the regions where Death reigns.
They have crowned you with mysterious flowers of unknown colours, an absurd garland worthy of a deposed god.
… your purple devotion to dreaming, splendour of Death’s antechamber.
… impossible hetairas of the abyss…
Sound your horns, heralds, from the tops of the battlements, in salute of this great dawn! The King of Death is about to enter his domain!
Flowers from the abyss, black roses, moon-white carnations, radiant red poppies.
Ludwig II, King of Bavaria: This whimsical German monarch was born in 1845, came to the throne in 1864, and died in 1886, on 13 June, exactly two years before Pessoa was born. A fervent admirer and supporter of Richard Wagner, Ludwig had little interest in government affairs but preferred to spend his time and the state’s money building mock-Gothic castles and sponsoring lavish performances of plays, concerts and operas for his own private enjoyment. His exasperated ministers finally declared him mentally unfit to rule and sent him to his castle-turned-asylum at Berg, where the next day his drowned corpse was found in Lake Starnberg, but whether he committed suicide or was the victim of foul play remains a mystery. This would perhaps please the so-called Dream King, who once wrote: ‘I want to remain an eternal enigma, both to myself and to others.’
catalfalques of heroes: ‘catafalques of suicides’ (alternate version)
IMPERIAL LEGEND [5/75, ms.]
restless mystery: ‘congenital mystery’ (alternate version)
my self-awareness: ‘my soul’ (alternate version)
IN THE FOREST OF ESTRANGEMENT Published in A Águia, July–December 1913, as a passage from The Book of Disquiet and signed by Fernando Pessoa. The whereabouts of the original manuscript is unknown.
THE LAKE OF POSSESSION (I) [9/47, ms.]
THE LAKE OF POSSESSIO
N (II) [5/5, ms.]
Property isn’t a theft: it’s nothing: This statement refutes, or relativizes, the notion of Proudhon. But in a note written in English [154/15], Pessoa agreed with the author of Qu’est-ce que la propriété?: ‘The true word on the case was first spoken by Proudhon. “Property,” he said, “is a theft.” And the words were truer than he himself believed, for property, in truth, is a theft and had its origin in robbery.’
A LETTER (I) [4/74, 5/9, ms.]
A LETTER (II)† [1141/75, ms.]
LUCID DIARY [5/17, typed]
by the gods: ‘by the angels’ (alternate version)
THE MAJOR [9/5, ms.] Dated 8 October 1919.
MAXIMS [7/32–3, ms.]
MILKY WAY [7/37, 7/35–6, typed]
rites from the time of no one: ‘rites contemporaneous to no one’s understanding’ (alternate version)
long-drawn-out epitaph: ‘Gongoristic epitaph’ (alternate version)
MILLIMETRES [9/49, typed]
OUR LADY OF SILENCE [4/75–7, 9/28, 94/80, 4/78–9, 4/73, 4/72, ms.]
so loathsomely born?: ‘so loathsomely expelled into the world?/into the light?’ (alternate versions)
Votary of nonsense phrases: ‘Votary of sexless phrases’ (alternate version)
PEDRO’S PASTORAL [8/8, ms.] Alternate title in the manuscript: Pedro’s Eclogue.
a bird alighted: ‘the idea of a bird alighted’ (alternate version)
PERISTYLE [9/39, 31, 32, 40, ms.]
like the open doors of an abandoned house: ‘like open gates at the end of a tree-lined drive’ (alternate version)
my life in you: ‘your life in me’ (alternate version)
than this dead life: ‘than this very life’ (alternate version)
RANDOM DIARY [5/68, ms.]
THE RIVER OF POSSESSION [5/70–72, ms.]
our true nature: ‘our true humanity’/‘our maturity’ (alternate versions)
Platonic: ‘spiritualist’ (alternate version)
garden of Estrela: A large public garden in Lisbon.
SELF -EXAMINATION [94/88, 88a, ms.]
Amiel: See note for Text 72.
THE SENSATIONIST [144D2/82–4, ms.]
‘on le fatigait en l’aimant’: From Chateaubriand. See Text 235.
SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION [5/53–4, typed]
SYMPHONY OF THE RESTLESS NIGHT [94/3, mixed]
argonauts: See note for Text 124.
THE VISUAL LOVER (I) [7/45–7, ms.]
Anteros: According to some mythological accounts, when young Eros (called Cupid by the Romans) complained to his mother that he was lonely, Aphrodite gave him a brother, Anteros, to be his playmate. A symbol of reciprocal affection, this Anteros was known as the god of unrequited love, punishing those who didn’t return the affection they were shown. But Pessoa, in an unpublished text from his archives [107/23–5], follows another ancient line of thought, which understood Anteros as an anti-Cupid. According to Pessoa, Eros represented instinctive love, motivated by sensual attraction, whereas Anteros represented love founded on reason and the intelligence.
‘Anteros’ was also the title for the last in a projected cycle of five poems that would have traced the history of love in the Western world. Pessoa wrote and published the first two poems in English: ‘Antinoüs’ (which he linked to Greece) and ‘Epithalamium’ (Rome). The third poem, ‘Prayer to a Woman’s Body’, would have represented the Christian era, and the fourth poem, ‘Pan-Eros’, the modern era. ‘Anteros’ was supposed to tell the future of love, and although no trace of such a poem has been uncovered, Pessoa did leave various (still unpublished) prose fragments in English for an essay likewise titled ‘Anteros’, into which he probably thought of incorporating ‘The Visual Lover’. The content of these various prose pieces confirms that Anteros, for Pessoa, opposes and transcends carnal love.
THE VISUAL LOVER (II) [5/58, typed]
A VOYAGE INEVER MADE (I) [4/80–81, ms.]
our own land, but only, of course, because it was no land at all: ‘our own, which we’d left so far behind, who knows whether in that same world’ (alternate version)
A VOYAGE INEVER MADE (II) [5/4, ms.]
A VOYAGE INEVER MADE (III) [5/3, ms.] No title appears on the manuscript, but it seems to have been written for Pessoa’s unrealized ‘Voyage’.
A VOYAGE INEVER MADE (IV) [5/24, ms.] No title appears on the manuscript.
Appendix I: Texts Citing the Name of Vincent Guedes
AP- 1 [6/3, ms.] Marked Preface, this passage contains elements incorporated by Pessoa into the (presumably subsequent) Preface placed at the front of this edition.
AP- 2 [8/3, ms.]
autobiography of a man who never existed: ‘biography of a man who never lived’ (alternate version)
AP- 3 [7/17, ms.]
‘Tout notaire a rêvé des sultanes’: ‘Every notary has dreamed of sultanas’ (from Flaubert).
Appendix II: Two Letters
AP- 4 [7/48, typed] The typescript carries the heading: (Copy of a letter to Pretoria). In 1896 Pessoa’s mother, widowed and remarried, had moved with young Fernando to Durban, South Africa, where her new husband served as the Portuguese consul. Pessoa returned to Lisbon in 1905, his mother (with the children from her second marriage) in 1920, once more a widow.
my best and closest friend: Mário de Sá-Carneiro. See note below.
AP- 5 Má rio de Sá -Carneiro: A close friend (1890–1916) and collaborator of Pessoa, was one of Portugal’s most important Modernist poets as well as a notable writer of fiction. The theme of all but his earliest work was the torment he felt for not living up – in his flesh, in his writing, and even in his imagination – to an ideal of beauty he could only intuit, not define, though it was clearly informed by a Decadent, post-Symbolist aesthetic. Pessoa posted this letter to Paris, where one month later Sá-Carneiro committed suicide in his room at the Hô tel de Nice.
The Mariner: Pessoa’s only complete play (O Marinheiro), which he classified as a ‘static drama’. It was published in 1915, in the first issue of Orpheu (see note to Pessoa’s ‘Preface’ at the beginning of this volume).
Appendix III: Reflections on The Book of Disquiet from Pessoa’s Writings
B. EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS
Joã o de Lebre e Lima: A little-known poet (1889–1959).
Armando Cortes-Rodrigues: Azorean poet (1891–1971) who actively collaborated with Pessoa and other Portuguese Modernists in the 1910s.
João Gaspar Simões: A major critic (1903–87) of twentieth-century Portuguese literature and a co-founder of Presença (published from 1927 to 1940), the Coimbra-based literary magazine that recognized Pessoa’s extreme originality and actively promoted his work when it was still not well known. Gaspar Simõ es published, in 1950, the first biography of Pessoa.
Portugal: This long work in progress was finally published in 1934 under a different title, Mensagem (Message), and with forty-four poems instead of forty-one. It was the only volume of Pessoa’s Portuguese poetry to see print in his lifetime.
Adolfo Casais Monteiro: Poet and critic (1908–72) who was an editor of Presença (see note on João Gaspar Simões) and an important advocate of Pessoa’s work.
C. FROM THE UNFINISHED PREFACE TO FICTIONS OF THE INTERLUDE These are just two of various passages written by Pessoa for his Preface-in-progress to the Fictions, which would have brought together the work of his major poetic heteronyms. (See note for Text 325.)
‘The Anarchist Banker’: A lengthy short story (‘O Banqueiro Anarquista’) that really amounts to a Socratic dialogue, published by Pessoa in 1922.
Table of Heteronyms
Pessoa referred to the many names under which he wrote prose and poetry as ‘heteronyms’ rather than pseudonyms, since they were not merely false names but belonged to invented others, to fictional writers with points of view and literary styles that were different from Pessoa’s. The three main poetic heteronyms – Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos – came int
o existence in 1914, but Pessoa wrote under some seventy-five names, the first of which go back to his childhood. Some, such as Maria José, were shooting stars who authored a single work; others, such as Vicente Guedes, shifted position and shone now brightly, now dimly, before eventually fading from view; and a very few, such as Campos, were permanent (though never static) bodies in Pessoa’s cosmography. The following is a list of the most significant names, along with some curious, lesser lights. They are presented in their approximate, sometimes conjectural order of appearance in Pessoa’s writing.
Chevalier de Pas Identified by Pessoa as ‘my first heteronym, or rather, my first non-existent acquaintance’, this friendly knight reportedly wrote letters to and through Pessoa when he was just six years old, perhaps in French, a language that both his parents spoke fluently.
Charles Robert Anon First full-fledged heteronym, created by Pessoa when still a teenager in South Africa, probably in 1903. His poetry and prose, written in English, are concerned with philosophical problems such as being vs. non-being and free will vs. determinism, and with the personal anxieties of a young man (himself? Pessoa?) on the threshold of becoming an adult. C. R. Anon, as he often signed himself, was basically anti-Christian and sometimes quite violently so, as in his ‘Epitaph of the Catholic Church’ and his prose piece that decreed a ‘sentence of excommunication on all priests and all sectarians of all religions in the world’.
Alexander Search Pessoa even had calling cards printed up for this English heteronym, who was born in Lisbon on the same day as his maker: 13 June 1888. Most of his close to two hundred poems were written in the three years immediately following Pessoa’s return to Lisbon in 1905, though a few date as late as 1910, while others go back to 1903– 4(at least some of these earlier poems were only credited to Search retroactively, however). His poems cannot compare, as literary creations, to the Portuguese verses written in the names of Caeiro, Campos and Reis, but they contain all the major themes subsequently developed by the illustrious trio. Search also wrote prose, including a macabre story titled ‘A Very Original Dinner’, in which the unsuspecting diners feast on human flesh.
Charles James Search Born on 18 April 1886, Alexander’s brother was a full-time translator of (mostly) Portuguese literature into English. The majority of his projects, such as a translation of Eça de Queiroz’s The Mandarin, never got off the ground, but he did produce many English versions of sonnets by the philosophically inclined Antero de Quental (1842–91). He also left a partial translation of a long Spanish verse play, The Student of Salamanca, by José de Espronceda (1808–42).