They say I pretend or lie
All I write. No such thing.
It simply is that I
Feel by imagining.
I don’t use the heart-string.
All that I dream or lose,
That falls short or dies on me.
Is like a terrace which looks
On another thing beyond.
It’s that thing leads me on.
And so I write in the middle
Of things not next one’s feet,
Free from my own muddle,
Concerned for what is not.
Feel? Let the reader feel!
by Fernando Pessoa
(1888-1935), Portugal
translated by Jonathon Griffin after the Portuguese of Fernando Pessoa
