The Book of Disquiet

by Fernando Pessoa

  fiction of the interlude: See note for Text 325.

  208 [4/17–18, typed] Dated 18 September 1931. Published in Descobrimento. Revista de Cultura, no. 3, 1931.

  209 First published by Antoónio de Pina Coelho in his book Os Fundamentos Filosoó ficos da Obra de Fernando Pessoa (Lisbon, 1971), where it was identified as a passage belonging to The Book of Disquiet. The whereabouts of the original manuscript is unknown.

  210 †[152/89, ms.] Alternate title in the manuscript: Ethics of Discouragement.

  211 [7/42, ms.]

  212 †[133F/87, typed]

  213 [2/76, typed]

  214 [2/75, typed]

  215 †[144D2/44–5, ms.]

  216 [2/44, typed] Dated 7 October 1931.

  217 [3/24, typed]

  218 †[8/6, ms.]

  219 †[28/9–10, typed] Scotus Erigena: John Scotus Erigena (810–77) was an Irish Neoplatonist philosopher and theologian.

  220 [9/23, ms.]

  221 [4/13, typed] Dated 16 October 1931.

  Pessanha: Camilo Pessanha (1867–1926) was an important Portuguese Symbolist poet who influenced the poetry of Pessoa.

  The Gold Lion: Located in downtown Lisbon, this restaurant (Leã o d’Ouro in Portuguese) first opened its doors in 1885.

  I know because I imagine: ‘I know or imagine’ (alternate version)

  222 [1/48, ms.] Almada: A town near Lisbon, located on the other side of the Tagus River.

  223 [4/41, typed]

  224 [2/89, ms.]

  225 [4/15–16, typed] Dated 16– 17 October 1931. Published in Descobrimento. Revista de Cultura, no. 3, 1931.

  Terreiro do Paço: See note for Text 107.

  226 †[142/55, ms.]

  227 [4/3, typed] Dated 18 October 1931. Published in Descobrimento. Revista de Cultura, no. 3, 1931.

  228 [4/4, ms.]

  229 †[144D2/137, ms.]

  230 [1/1, typed] The manuscript carries the heading A. de C. (?) or B. of D. (or something else).

  231 [5/57, typed]

  gladiolated: After a neologism in the original. This might mean that Soares’s foreglimpse of dissatisfaction is surrounded by gladioli, perhaps to suggest a funeral (cf. the ‘truth that needs no flowers to show it’s dead’ of Text 193). Or it might refer to the structure of the plant, whose horizontal spikes create a kind of louvred effect; Soares, then, would be glimpsing the future as if through a set of louvres.

  232 [2/88, typed]

  233 [2/91, ms.]

  234 [9/7, ms.]

  235 [2/5, typed]

  236 [2/69, ms.]

  237 †[94/98, typed]

  238 †[155/14, typed]

  Tarde: Gabriel Tarde (1843–1904) was a French sociologist and criminologist. (The quote reappears in Text 446.)

  239 †[138/87, typed]

  240 [5/34, ms.]

  241 [8/11, typed]

  242 [1/18, typed]

  243 [3/19–20, typed] Dated 4 November 1931.

  244 [5/47, ms.]

  245 [5/28, ms.]

  246 †[1141/77, ms.]

  247 †[7/34, typed]

  248 [9/3, ms.]

  249 †[9/18–22, ms.]

  250 [7/18, ms.]

  251 [7/4, 8/5, 8/7, ms.]

  252 [9/1, ms.]

  253 [2/8, typed]

  254 [1/44–5, typed]

  255 [4/26–8, typed] Dated 29 November 1931.

  256 [2/49, typed]

  257 [1/87, typed]

  258 [9/2, ms.] On the same manuscript sheet, Pessoa wrote in English: ‘Your poems are of interest to mankind; your liver isn’t. Drink till you write well and feel sick. Bless your poems and be damned to you.’

  259 [4/5–6, typed] Published in Descobrimento. Revista de Cultura, no. 3, 1931.

  Fialho: José Valentim Fialho de Almeida (1857–1911) was a Portuguese writer of stories and social commentary. Initially informed by naturalism but later embodying Decadent ideals, his writing became increasingly concerned to force the limits of language, using it impressionistically to represent feelings and sensations not conveyed by traditional diction and syntax.

  Vieira: See note for Text 30.

  phonetic rather than etymological spelling: Literally, ‘simplified spelling’. In 1911, one year after Portugal became a republic, an Orthographic Reform introduced sweeping changes into the spelling of Portuguese, with y being replaced by i, ph by f, and most silent letters being dropped. Pessoa, who never accepted or adopted most of these changes, was a strong defender of etymological orthography (‘Graeco-Roman transliteration’), both theoretically and in his actual practice.

  260 [3/84, typed] Dated 1 December 1931.

  261 [2/25, ms.]

  262 [4/2, typed] Dated 1 December 1931.

  infinitudinous: A neologism formed from the words infinito and muó ltiplo is employed in the original.

  263 [4/1, typed] Dated 1 December 1931.

  the man that sold his shadow: Peter Schlemihl, protagonist of a novel by Adelbert von Chamisso (see note for Text 468).

  264 †[28/24, ms.]

  265 [1/41, typed]

  266 [4/22, mixed] Dated 3 December 1931.

  Vieira: See note for Text 30.

  267 [9/10, typed] At the bottom of the manuscript, in English: (transformation of Sherlock Holmes article – should it be done?).

  268 [2/81, typed]

  Cesário: See note for Text 3.

  269 [7/41, ms.]

  270 [3/3, typed]

  271 [3/4, typed]

  272 [3/5, typed]

  273 [1/86, typed]

  274 [1/63, typed]

  275 [1/3, typed]

  276 †[133B/39, ms.]

  277 [1/19, 21, typed]

  Chiado: A fashionable neighbourhood of central Lisbon, much frequented by writers and intellectuals in Pessoa’s time.

  278 [1/69, mixed]

  ‘Most people are other people’: From De Profundis. The passage cited by Pessoa continues: ‘Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.’

  Antero de Quental: A Portuguese poet and thinker (1842–91) much admired by Pessoa. Quental’s chronic pessimism, coupled with mental instability, worsened with age, until he finally committed suicide.

  279 [3/82, typed] Dated 16 December 1931.

  280 †[9/33, ms.]

  281 [1/66, ms.]

  interexist: After a neologism in the original.

  282 [2/48, typed] Preceded by this notation: (written in spells, and with much to revise).

  283 [7/40, typed]

  284 [9/42, ms.]

  285 [4/23, typed] Dated 20 December 1931.

  286 [2/86, typed]

  287 [1/28, ms.]

  288 †[144D2/123, ms.]

  289 [5/51, typed]

  the scattered traits of its various parts!: This translation presupposes a typographical error in the manuscript, duas in lieu of suas. Not assuming an error, the translation could be ‘the scattered traits of the two parts!’.

  290 [2/21, ms.]

  Horaces: ‘Verlaines’ (alternate version)

  291 [1/62, ms.]

  292 [9/30, ms.]

  293 [138/21, ms.]

  294 [9/34a, ms.]

  295 [9/35, 35a, ms.]

  296 [7/17, ms.]

  animal happiness: ‘animal spirits’ (alternate version, written in English)

  297 †[28/96, ms.]

  298 [4/33, typed]

  299 [5/74, ms.]

  Cascais: See note for Text 16.

  300 [94/87, ms.]

  301 [5/7a, 9a, ms.]

  302 [2/62, mixed]

  303 [4/24–5, typed] Dated 17 January 1932.

  fooling himself with a double personality, plays against his own person: ‘cheating on the score with a double personality, plays against himself’ (alternate version)

  304 [Sinais 3, ms.]

  305 †[8/4, ms.] The first two manuscript pages of this passage are missing. In the portion of the text that has survived, the end
of the first sentence literally translates as ‘obstacles to doing this constantly’, where ‘this’ presumably refers to something from the previous (now lost) paragraph.

  ubiquitize: After a similar neologism in the original.

  306 [6/13, typed] The translation reflects, as far as possible, the peculiar shifts from third-person plural to first that occur in the last four paragraphs. argonauts’ adventurous precept: See note for Text 124.

  307 [5/80 ms.]

  308 †[9/33a, ms.]

  309 [9/51, ms.]

  310 [4/68, ms.]

  311 [3/9, typed]

  312 [1/36, typed]

  313 [1/25, mixed]

  314 [144D2/43–4, ms.]

  Island of the superiors: ‘City of the superiors’ (alternate version)

  315 [5/39, ms.]

  316 [144G/38, ms.]

  317 [3/81, mixed] Dated 26 January 1932.

  318 [3/83, ms.]

  319 [5/45, 45a, ms.]

  320 [3/69, mixed] Dated 29 January 1932.

  321 [4/36, ms.]

  322 [5/63–4, ms.]

  Waters: ‘Metals’/‘Seaweed’ (alternate versions)

  323 [1/52, typed]

  324 †[144D2/19, ms.]

  325 [4/54, typed]

  Fictions of the interlude: This phrase was supposed to serve as the general title for Pessoa’s heteronymic work, which he planned to bring out in various volumes (see the excerpted Preface to Fictions of the Interlude in Appendix III), and actually did serve as a title for a group of five poems signed by his own name and published in 1917. The last two paragraphs of Text 348 elucidate its meaning.

  326 †[9/46, ms.]

  327 [2/57, typed]

  328 [4/86, ms.] At the bottom of the manuscript sheet, written upside-down: Nobody achieves anything… Nothing’s worth doing.

  329 [4/87, ms.]

  330 [5/25–6, ms.]

  331 [3/71, typed] Dated 5 February 1932.

  332 [5/73, ms.]

  333 [144D2/135, ms.] Dated 18 July 1916.

  334 [3/68, typed] Dated 16 March 1932.

  335 [144X/36, ms.]

  336 [3/80, typed]

  337 [3/70, typed]

  338 [1/31, typed]

  Pays du Tendre: An allegorical Carte du Tendre, or map of the country called ‘Tender’, was published in the first volume (1654) of Clélie, a novel of love and courtship written by Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701). ‘Tender’, the country of love, is traversed by the River of Affections, includes a Lake of Indifference towards the east, and has numerous towns with such names as Sincerity, Tenderness, Thoughtlessness and Spite. Many other examples of ‘amorous geography’ circulated in France during the second half of the seventeenth century.

  339 [3/75, typed] Dated 28 March 1932.

  340 [2/61, ms.]

  Amiel’s: See note for Text 72.

  341 [2/72–3, typed]

  342 [3/72, typed] Dated 2 May 1932.

  343 [7/43, ms.]

  344 [4/70, ms.]

  perverse: ‘sublime’ (alternate version)

  345 [4/69, ms.]

  chaste like dead lips: ‘chaste like hermits’ (alternate version)

  346 †[94/93, ms.]

  like our souls: ‘like our idea of them’/‘like our seeing’ (alternate versions)

  347 [9/14, ms.]

  348 [3/74, typed] Dated 15 May 1932.

  349 [7/19, ms.]

  350 [3/73, typed] Dated 23 May 1932.

  351 [7/17, ms.]

  352 [3/78, typed] Dated 31 May 1932.

  353 †[94/4, typed]

  354 [4/43, typed]

  355 [3/63, typed]

  the light of all hells: ‘an infinite day’/‘a mighty day’ (alternate versions) the hard veil of the abyss: ‘silks/fabrics from the abyss’ (alternate versions)

  356 [4/45, typed] Dated 11 June 1932.

  357 [3/79, typed]

  358 [2/77, typed]

  359 [3/77, ms.] Dated 14 June 1932.

  the poet: Matthew Arnold, in his poem ‘To Marguerite – Continued’.

  master of St Martha: Pessoa might be referring to the scene, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus chides Martha for worrying too much about serving the meal instead of enjoying his company, like her sister Mary, and/or he might have in mind the Gospel of John, where Jesus is reported to have defended Mary’s ‘wasteful’ gesture of anointing his feet with costly spikenard.

  360 [1/23, typed]

  361 [3/10, typed]

  362 [5/37, ms.]

  363 [9/37–8, ms.] Marked B. of D. or Stamp Collector. ‘The Stamp Collector’ was one of many short stories that Pessoa never finished.

  364 †[9/29, 94/76, ms.] Alternate version of first paragraph: ‘Our sensations pass, so how can we possess them, let alone what they make known to us? Can anyone possess a river that flows? Does the wind that blows past us belong to anyone?’

  365 †[94/89, ms.]

  366 [9/50, ms.]

  367 [7/41, ms.]

  368 †[15B1/58, ms.]

  never lingers at the windows of an attitude: ‘never assumes a definite stance’ (alternate version)

  369 [7/1, ms.] The manuscript also contains the title of a projected passage, ‘Love with a Chinese Woman on a Porcelain Teacup’, for which just one sentence was written: ‘Our love took place peacefully, the way she wanted it, in just two dimensions.’

  370 [7/5–10, ms.]

  wouldn’t have wanted to say: ‘couldn’t have helped having finally said’ (alternate version)

  371 [28/98, ms.]

  372 [133/10, ms.]

  373 [3/76, typed] Dated 23 June 1932.

  English poet: Edmund Gosse (1849–1928), in a poem titled ‘Lying in the Grass’.

  374 [4/46, typed] Dated 2 July 1932. Published in A Revista, no. 1, 1932.

  Benfica: See note for Text 138.

  375 [7/38, ms.]

  376 [5/61, ms.]

  377 [3/65, typed] Dated 16 July 1932.

  the nerves: ‘the mind’ (alternate version)

  378 [2/15, typed] Dated 25 July 1932.

  379 [138/21, ms.]

  380 [4/49, typed] Dated 28 September 1932.

  381 [4/50–51, typed] Dated 28 September 1932.

  382 [2/26, ms.]

  383 [9/48, ms.]

  384 [5/38, ms.]

  385 [4/48, ms.] Dated 2 November 1932.

  386 [2/22, typed] Dated 28 November 1932.

  387 [3/25, typed]

  388 [9/13, ms.]

  389 [5/40, ms.]

  390 †[8/2, ms.]

  391 [2/23, typed] Dated 13 December 1932.

  392 †[138 A/10, typed]

  393 [1/68, mixed]

  since Mystery plays a part in these: ‘and our very life denies itself’ (alternate version)

  fado: Portugal’s plaintive national folksong, whose name also means ‘fate’. the same watered-down life: ‘the same sensation/consciousness of life’ (alternate versions)

  394 [144D2/37, ms.]

  395 †[8/13, typed]

  396 [2/27, typed] Dated 30 December 1932.

  397 [2/14, ms.]

  398 [5/48, ms.]

  399 [2/32, ms.]

  Diogenes: Plutarch reports that when Alexander the Great was declared general of the Greeks, everyone came to congratulate him except Diogenes the Cynic. Alexander went with his entourage to Diogenes, whom he found lying in the sun. Distracted by the bustle of people, Diogenes looked up at Alexander, who asked him if he wanted anything. ‘Yes,’ answered the philosopher, ‘I would like you to stand a little out of my sun.’ Alexander, impressed with this answer, went away saying that, if he weren’t Alexander, he would choose to be Diogenes.

  400 [9/6, ms.]

  401 †[138A/41, ms.]

  402 †[133C/59, ms.]

  403 †[94/2, typed]

  404 [144D2/43, ms.]

  405 [1/13, typed] Dated 23 March 1933.

  406 [2/85, typed] The following, isolated phrase appears between the last two paragraphs
: the bright maternal smile of the brimming earth, the hermetic splendour of the darkness on high.....

  407 [1/37, typed]

  sensitive fabric: ‘wrinkled/rough/outer fabric’ (alternate versions)

  408 [1/61, typed] fado: See note for Text 393.

  409 [2/30, typed] Dated 29 March 1933.

  410 [1/20, typed]

  Fialho’s: See note for Text 259.

  411 [1/6, typed]

  412 [9/43–6, ms.]

  Alone: A much-admired book of rueful poems (titled Só in the original) by António Nobre (1867–1900).

  413 [9/26, ms.]

  hear God: ‘hear the hours’ (alternate version)

  And over all of this the horror of living will hover remotely: ‘And may the horror of living hover remotely over all of this’ (alternate version)

  414 [9/26, ms.]

  415 [7/11, ms.]

  416 [5/55, mixed]

  417 [1/46, typed]

  Father Figueiredo: António Cardoso Borges de Figueiredo (1792–1878), a priest who wrote a number of instructional books for use in schools. Pessoa’s surviving personal library contains a well-worn copy of Figueiredo’s Rhetoric, with notes on the flyleaves and even several poems.

  Father Freire: Francisco José Freire (1719–73), better known by his pen-name, Cândido Lusitano, was a founding member of Arcadia, an influential Portuguese literary academy.

  418 [1/16, ms.]

  written with c: Father Figueiredo’s Rhetoric contains no specific lists of ‘words written with c’. Pessoa is no doubt referring to the fact that the Jesuit’s orthography, reflecting the conventions of the eighteenth century, employed c in various words from which it later dropped out (because it was silent) or in which it was replaced by s or ss.

  419 [1/71, 71a, mixed]

  420 [1141/18, ms.]

  the unknown god of the religion of my Gods: ‘the unknown god whom perhaps the Gods remember’ (alternate version)

  421 [1/71, ms.]

  422 [1/80, typed]

  423 †[94/13, 13a, ms.]

  424 [5/23, ms.]

  425 [144X/99, ms.]

  426 [2/17, typed] Dated 5 April 1933.

  427 [9/4, ms.] The passage is followed by two proverbs (incorporated into a group of 300 Portuguese proverbs that Pessoa collected and translated in the 1910s for an English publisher, who did not finally publish the projected volume, due to economic difficulties):

  The sun rises for everyone.

  God is good, but the devil isn’t bad.

  The proverbs are followed by this random note: Its faults notwithstanding, the Romantic equilibrium is better than that of the 17th century in France.