The Book of Disquiet (75 page)

205
[4/32, typed] Dated 16 September 1931.

206
[3/50, ms.] This text seems to refer to ‘In the Forest of Estrangement’, where an alcove is mentioned.

207
[6/12, typed] At the top of the text:
B. of D. (or Teive?)
. See the Introduction for information about the Baron of Teive, Pessoa’s aristocratic heteronym.

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
†[15
²
/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
†[144D
²
/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
†[14
²
/55, ms.]

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

228
[4/4, ms.]

229
†[144D
²
/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
†[15
⁵
/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
†[114
¹
/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
†[144D
²
/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
[144D
²
/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
†[144D
²
/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
[144D
²
/135, ms.] Dated 18 July 1916.