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{{Short description|Portuguese poet, writer, and philosopher (1888–1935)}}
{{redirect|Alexander Search|the band|Alexander Search (band)}}
{{Portuguese name|[[Nogueira (disambiguation)|Nogueira]]|[[Pessoa (surname)|Pessoa]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name             = Fernando Pessoa
| image            = Pessoa_chapeu.jpg
| caption          = Portrait of Pessoa 1914
| birth_name       = Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1888|6|13|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Lisbon]], [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1935|11|30|1888|6|13|df=y}}
| death_place      = Lisbon, [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]]
| resting_place    = 
| occupation       = {{flatlist|
* Poet
* writer
* translator 
* philosopher
}}
| language         = [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]]
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = [[University of Lisbon]]
| period           = 1912–1935
| genre            = Poetry, essay, fiction
| subject          = 
| movement         = [[Modernism]]
| notableworks     = ''[[Mensagem]]'' (1934)<br/> ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]'' (1982)
| spouse           = 
| partner          = Ophelia Queiroz (girlfriend)
| relatives        = 
| awards           = {{unbulleted list|Queen Victoria Prize (1903)|Antero de Quental Award (1934)}}
| signature        = Pessoa signature.svg
| signature_alt    = "Fernando Pessoa"
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
| imagesize        = 
| pseudonym        = [[Alberto Caeiro]], [[Álvaro de Campos]], [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]], {{ill|Bernardo Soares|pt}}, etc.
}}

'''Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ɛ|ˈ|s|oʊ|ə}};<ref>[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pessoa "Pessoa"]. ''[[Collins English Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{IPA|pt|fɨɾˈnɐ̃du pɨˈsoɐ|lang}}; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] [[poet]], [[writer]], [[literary critic]], [[translator]], and [[publisher]]. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the [[Portuguese language]]. He also wrote in and translated from English and French.

Pessoa was a prolific writer both in his own name and approximately seventy-five other names, of which three stand out: [[Alberto Caeiro]], [[Álvaro de Campos]], and [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]]. He did not define these as ''pseudonyms'' because he felt that this did not capture their true independent intellectual life and instead called them [[Heteronym (literature)|''heteronyms'']], a term he invented.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ciuraru |first1=Carmela |title=Fernando Pessoa & His Heteronyms |url=https://poetrysociety.org/poems-essays/tributes/fernando-pessoa-his-heteronyms |publisher=Poetry Society of America |access-date=1 June 2024}}</ref> These imaginary figures sometimes held unpopular or extreme views.

== Early life ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=January 2022}}
[[File:Fernando Pessoa Largo de São Carlos2035.JPG|thumb|200px|Pessoa's birthplace: a large flat at São Carlos Square, just in front of Lisbon's opera.]]

Pessoa was born in [[Lisbon]] on 13 June 1888. When Pessoa was five, his father, Joaquim de Seabra Pessôa, died of [[tuberculosis]], and less than seven months later his younger brother Jorge, aged one, also died (2 January 1889).<ref name = "Zenith, Richard 2008">{{cite book| last= Zenith |first= Richard |year= 2008| title= Fotobiografias Século XX: Fernando Pessoa| place= Lisboa| publisher= Círculo de Leitores| isbn= }}</ref> After the second marriage of his mother, Maria Magdalena Pinheiro Nogueira, by a [[proxy wedding]] to João Miguel dos Santos Rosa, Fernando sailed with his mother for [[South Africa]] in early 1896 to join his stepfather, a [[Portuguese Army|military]] officer appointed Portuguese [[Consul (representative)|consul]] in [[Durban]], capital of the former British [[Colony of Natal]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tóibín |first=Colm |date=2021-08-12 |title=I haven't been I |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n16/colm-toibin/i-haven-t-been-i |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=43 |issue=16 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref>

In a letter dated 8 February 1918, Pessoa wrote:

[[File:FP triciclo.jpg|thumb|200px| Last year in Lisbon before moving to Durban, 1894, aged 6.]]

{{blockquote|There is only one event in the past which has both the definiteness and the importance required for rectification by direction; this is my father's death, which took place on 13 July 1893. My mother's second marriage (which took place on 30 December 1895) is another date which I can give with preciseness and it is important for me, not in itself, but in one of its results – the circumstance that, my stepfather becoming Portuguese Consul in Durban (Natal), I was educated there, this English education being a factor of supreme importance in my life, and, whatever my fate be, indubitably shaping it.
The dates of the voyages related to the above event are (as nearly as possible):

1st. voyage to Africa – left Lisbon beginning January 1896.

Return – left Durban in the afternoon of 1st. August 1901.

2nd. voyage to Africa – left Lisbon about 20th. September 1902.

Return – left Durban about 20th. August 1905.<ref>Letter to ''British Journal of Astrology'', W. Foulsham & Co., 61, Fleet Street, London, E.C., 8 February 1918. In Pessoa, Fernando (1999). ''Correspondência 1905–1922'', ed. Manuela Parreira da Silva. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, p. 258, {{ISBN|978-85-7164-916-3}}.</ref>}}

The young Pessoa received his early education at St. Joseph Convent School, a [[Roman Catholic]] [[grammar school]] run by [[Irish people|Irish]] and [[French people|French]] nuns. He moved to the [[Durban High School]] in April 1899, becoming fluent in [[English language|English]] and developing an appreciation for [[English literature]]. During the [[Matriculation examination|Matriculation Examination]], held at the time by the University of the Cape of Good Hope (forerunner of the [[University of Cape Town]]), in November 1903, he was awarded the recently created [[Queen Victoria]] Memorial Prize for best paper in English. While preparing to enter university, he also attended the [[Durban Commercial High School]] during one year, taking night classes.<ref name = "Zenith, Richard 2021">{{cite book| last= Zenith |first= Richard |year= 2021| title= Pessoa: A Biography| place= New York| publisher= Liveright Publishing Corporation| isbn= 9781324090779}}</ref>

[[File:Pessoa 1898.jpg|thumb|200px|Pessoa in Durban, 1898, aged 10.]]

Meanwhile, Pessoa started writing short stories in English, some under the name of David Merrick, many of which he left unfinished.<ref name="Zenith, Richard 2008"/> At the age of sixteen, ''[[The Natal Mercury]]'' (edition of 6 July 1904) published his satirical poem "Hillier did first usurp the realms of rhyme ...", under the name of C. R. Anon (anonymous), along with a brief introductory text: "I read with great amusement...".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Monteiro |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5TLLwMasVPUC&dq=fernando+pessoa+natal+mercury&pg=PA1 |title=Fernando Pessoa and Nineteenth-century Anglo-American Literature |date=2000 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-3270-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pessoa |first1=Fernando |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm62282634 |title=A little larger than the entire universe: selected poems |last2=Zenith |first2=Richard |date=2006 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-303955-6 |series=Penguin classics |location=New York |oclc=ocm62282634}}</ref> In December, ''The Durban High School Magazine'' published his essay "Macaulay".<ref>Monteiro, Maria da Encarnação (1961), ''Incidências Inglesas na Poesia de Fernando Pessoa, Coimbra:  author ed.''</ref> From February to June 1905, in the section "The Man in the Moon", ''[[The Natal Mercury]]'' also published at least four [[sonnet]]s by Fernando Pessoa: "Joseph Chamberlain", "To England I", "To England II" and "Liberty".<ref>Jennings, H. D. (1984), ''Os Dois Exilios'', Porto: Centro de Estudos Pessoanos</ref> His poems often carried humorous versions of [[Anonymity|Anon]] as the author's name. Pessoa started using [[pen names]] quite young. The first one, still in his childhood, was Chevalier de Pas, supposedly a [[French nobility|French noble]]. In addition to Charles Robert Anon and David Merrick, the young writer also signed up, among other pen names, as Horace James Faber, {{ill|Alexander Search|pt}}, and other meaningful names.<ref name="Zenith, Richard 2021"/>

In the preface to ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]'', Pessoa wrote about himself:
{{blockquote|Nothing had ever obliged him to do anything. He had spent his childhood alone. He never joined any group. He never pursued a course of study. He never belonged to a crowd. The circumstances of his life were marked by that strange but rather common phenomenon – perhaps, in fact, it's true for all lives – of being tailored to the image and likeness of his instincts, which tended towards inertia and withdrawal.}}

[[File:Pessoa13.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Pessoa in 1901, aged 13.]]
The young Pessoa was described by a schoolfellow as follows:
{{blockquote |I cannot tell you exactly how long I knew him, but the period during which I received most of my impressions of him was the whole of the year 1904 when we were at school together. How old he was at this time I don't know, but judge him to have 15 or 16. [...]

He was pale and thin and appeared physically to be very imperfectly developed. He had a narrow and contracted chest and was inclined to stoop. He had a peculiar walk and some defect in his eyesight gave to his eyes also a peculiar appearance, the lids seemed to drop over the eyes. [...]

He was regarded as a brilliant clever boy as, in spite of the fact that he had not spoken English in his early years, he had learned it so rapidly and so well that he had a splendid style in that language. Although younger than his schoolfellows of the same class he appeared to have no difficulty in keeping up with and surpassing them in work. For one of his age, he thought much and deeply and in a letter to me once complained of "spiritual and material encumbrances of most especial adverseness". [...]

He took no part in athletic sports of any kind and I think his spare time was spent on reading. We generally considered that he worked far too much and that he would ruin his health by so doing.<ref>Clifford E. Geerdts, letter to ''Dr. Faustino Antunes'', 10 April 1907. In Pessoa, Fernando (2003). ''Escritos Autobiográficos, Automáticos e de Reflexão Pessoal'', ed. Richard Zenith. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, pp. 394–398.</ref>}}

Ten years after his arrival, he sailed for [[Lisbon]] by East through the [[Suez Canal]] on board the "Herzog", leaving Durban for good at the age of seventeen. This journey inspired the poems "Opiário" (dedicated to his friend, the poet and writer [[Mário de Sá-Carneiro]]) published in March 1915, in the literary journal ''[[Geração de Orpheu|Orpheu]]'' nr.1<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23620|title=Orpheu Nº1 Revista Trimestral de Literatura|date=1915|editor-last=Ferro|editor-first=António Joaquim Tavares| language= Portuguese}}</ref> and "Ode Marítima" (dedicated to the futurist painter [[Guilherme de Santa-Rita|Santa-Rita]]) published in June 1915, in ''Orpheu'' nr.2<ref>{{citation | publisher = [[Project Gutenberg]] | url = https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23621 | title = Orpheu | issue = 2| first1= Alvaro |last1= de Campos| first2= Violante |last2= Cisneiros| first3= Eduardo |last3= Guimarães| first4= Raul |last4= de Oliveira Sousa Leal| first5= Ângelo |last5= Vaz Pinto Azevedo Coutinho de Lima| first6= Luís |last6= de Montalvor| first7= Fernando |last7= Pessoa| first8= Mário |last8= de Sá-Carneiro| editor= António Joaquim Tavares Ferro}}</ref> by his [[heteronym (literature)|heteronym]] [[Álvaro de Campos]].

==Lisbon revisited==

[[File:Papel timbrado da Empresa Ibis 1.jpg|thumb|200px|"Ibis Enterprise", the first firm established by Pessoa, in 1909.]]

While his family remained in South Africa, Pessoa returned to Lisbon in 1905 to study diplomacy. After a period of illness, and two years of poor results, a [[student strike]] against the dictatorship of Prime Minister [[João Franco]] put an end to his formal studies. Pessoa became an [[Autodidacticism|autodidact]] and a devoted reader who spent much of his time in libraries.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-08 |title=Fernando Pessoa - an icon of Portuguese modernism – Go to Portugal - Portugal guides |url=https://andgotoportugal.com/fernando-pessoa/ |access-date=2023-05-08 |language=en-US}}</ref> In August 1907, he started working as a practitioner at R.G. Dun & Company, an American mercantile information agency (currently D&B, Dun & Bradstreet). His grandmother died in September and left him a small inheritance, which he spent on setting up his own publishing house, the "Empreza Ibis". The venture was not successful and closed down in 1910, but the name [[ibis]],<ref>Ibe name "ibis" has a very long literary tradition: the elegiac poem ''Ibis'' by [[Ovid]] was inspired in the lost poem of the same title by [[Callimachus]].</ref> the sacred bird of [[Ancient Egypt]] and inventor of the alphabet in [[Greek mythology]], would remain an important symbolic reference for him.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Pessoa returned to his uncompleted formal studies, complementing his British education with self-directed study of Portuguese culture. The pre-revolutionary atmosphere surrounding the assassination of King [[Carlos I of Portugal|Charles I]] and Crown Prince [[Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal|Luís Filipe]] in 1908, and the patriotic outburst resulting from the successful [[5 October 1910 revolution|republican revolution]] in 1910, influenced the development of the budding writer; as did his step-uncle, Henrique dos Santos Rosa, a poet and retired soldier, who introduced the young Pessoa to [[Portuguese poetry]], notably the romantics and [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolists]] of the 19th century.<ref>{{citation | language = pt | last = Zenith | first = Richard | year = 2008 | series = Fotobiografias do Século XX | title = Fernando Pessoa | place = Lisboa | publisher = Círculo de Leitores | page = 78}}.</ref>

In 1912, Fernando Pessoa entered the literary world with a critical essay, published in the cultural journal ''A Águia'', which triggered one of the most important literary debates in the Portuguese intellectual world of the 20th century: the polemic regarding a super-[[Camões]]. In 1915 a group of artists and poets, including Fernando Pessoa, [[Mário de Sá-Carneiro]] and [[Almada Negreiros]], created the literary magazine ''[[Geração de Orpheu|Orpheu]]'',<ref>{{citation | url = http://purl.pt/12089/2/ | language = pt | title = Orpheu | editor-first = António | editor-last = Ferro | place = Lisboa | date = Jan–Mar 1915 | publisher = Orpheu, Lda. | issue = 1–2}}.</ref> which introduced [[modernist]] literature to Portugal. Only two issues were published (Jan–Feb–Mar and Apr–May–Jun 1915), the third failed to appear due to funding difficulties. Lost for many years, this issue was finally recovered and published in 1984.<ref>{{citation | language = pt | title = Orpheu | editor-first = Arnaldo | editor-last = Saraiva | place = Lisboa | publisher = Edições Ática | issue = 3}}.</ref>  Among other writers and poets, ''[[Geração de Orpheu|Orpheu]]'' published Pessoa, orthonym, and the modernist [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronym]], [[Álvaro de Campos]].{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

[[File:Casa Fernando Pessoa Fachada.jpg|thumb|200px| Pessoa's last home, from 1920 till his death, in 1935, currently the [http://casafernandopessoa.cm-lisboa.pt Fernando Pessoa Museum] ]]

Along with the artist Ruy Vaz, Pessoa also founded the art journal ''Athena'' (1924–25),<ref>{{citation | url = http://casafernandopessoa.cm-lisboa.pt/bdigital/0-28MN/2/0-28MN_item2/index.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130114073338/http://casafernandopessoa.cm-lisboa.pt/bdigital/0-28MN/2/0-28MN_item2/index.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2013-01-14 | language = pt | title = Athena | date = Oct 1924 – Feb 1925 | editor-first = Fernando Pessoa | editor-last = Ruy Vaz | place = Lisboa | publisher = Imprensa Libanio da Silva | issue = 1–5}}.</ref> in which he published verses under the [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]] [[Alberto Caeiro]] and [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]]. In addition to his profession as free-lance commercial translator, Fernando Pessoa undertook intense activity as a writer, literary critic and political analyst, contributing to the journals and newspapers ''A Águia'' (1912–13), ''A República'' (1913), ''Theatro'' (1913), ''A Renascença'' (1914), ''O Raio'' (1914), ''A Galera'' (1915), ''Orpheu'' (1915), ''O Jornal'' (1915), ''Eh Real!'' (1915), ''Exílio'' (1916), ''Centauro'' (1916), ''A Ideia Nacional'' (1916), ''Terra Nossa'' (1916), ''[[O Heraldo]]'' (1917), ''Portugal Futurista'' (1917), ''Acção'' (1919–20), ''Ressurreição'' (1920), ''Contemporânea'' (1922–26), ''Athena'' (1924–25), ''Diário de Lisboa'' (1924–35), ''Revista de Comércio e Contabilidade'' (1926), ''Sol'' (1926), ''O Imparcial'' (1927), ''Presença'' (1927–34), ''Revista Solução Editora'' (1929–1931), ''Notícias Ilustrado'' (1928–30), ''Girassol'' (1930), ''Revolução'' (1932), ''Descobrimento'' (1932), ''Fama'' (1932–33), ''Fradique'' (1934) and ''[[Sudoeste (review)|Sudoeste]]'' (1935).{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==Pessoa the ''flâneur''==

After his return to Portugal, when he was seventeen, Pessoa barely left his beloved city of Lisbon, which inspired the poems "Lisbon Revisited" (1923 and 1926), written under the [[heteronym (literature)|heteronym]] [[Álvaro de Campos]]. From 1905 to 1920, when his family returned from [[Pretoria]] after the death of his stepfather, he lived in fifteen different locations in the city,<ref>Zenith, Richard (2008), ''Fotobiografias do Século XX: Fernando Pessoa''. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, pp. 194–195.</ref> moving from one rented room to another depending on his fluctuating finances and personal troubles.

Pessoa adopted the detached perspective of the [[flâneur]] {{ill|Bernardo Soares|pt}}, one of his [[heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]].<ref>Guerreiro, Ricardina (2004), ''De Luto por Existir: a melancolia de Bernardo Soares à luz de Walter Benjamin''. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, p. 159.</ref> This character was supposedly an accountant, working for Vasques, the boss of an office located in Douradores Street. Soares also supposedly lived in the same downtown street, a world that Pessoa knew quite well due to his long career as freelance correspondence translator. Indeed, from 1907 until his death in 1935, Pessoa worked in twenty-one firms located in Lisbon's downtown, sometimes in two or three of them simultaneously.<ref>Sousa, João Rui de (2010), ''Fernando Pessoa Empregado de Escritório'', 2nd ed. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim.</ref> In ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]'', Bernardo Soares describes some of these typical places and describes one's "atmosphere". In his daydream soliloquy he also wrote about Lisbon in the first half of the 20th century. Soares describes crowds in the streets, buildings, shops, traffic, the river Tagus, the weather, and even its author, Fernando Pessoa:

[[File:Brasileira 1911.jpg|thumb|200px|Coffee house "[[A Brasileira]]", established in 1905, the year Pessoa returned to Lisbon.]]

{{blockquote 
|Fairly tall and thin, he must have been about thirty years old. He hunched over terribly when sitting down but less so standing up, and he dressed with a carelessness that wasn't entirely careless. In his pale, uninteresting face there was a look of suffering that didn't add any interest, and it was difficult to say just what kind of suffering this look suggested. It seemed to suggest various kinds: hardships, anxieties, and the suffering born of the indifference that comes from having already suffered a lot.<ref>{{citation | last = Pessoa | first = Fernando | year = 2002 | title = The Book of Disquiet| place = London | publisher = Penguin Books | isbn =  978-0-14-118304-6}}.</ref>}}

A statue of Pessoa sitting at a table (below) can be seen outside [[A Brasileira]], one of the preferred places of young writers and artists of [[Geração de Orpheu|''Orpheu''{{'}}s group]] during the 1910s. This coffeehouse, in the [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocratic]] district of [[Chiado]], is quite close to Pessoa's birthplace: 4, São Carlos Square (just in front of [[Teatro Nacional de São Carlos|Lisbon's Opera House]], where stands another statue of the writer), one of the most elegant neighborhoods of Lisbon.<ref>{{citation | last = Dias | first = Marina Tavares | year = 2002 | title = Lisboa nos Passos de Pessoa: uma cidade revisitada através da vida e da obra do poeta |trans-title=Lisbon in Pessoa's footsteps: a Lisbon tour through the life and poetry of Fernando Pessoa | place = Lisboa | publisher = Quimera}}.</ref> Later on, Pessoa was a frequent customer at Martinho da Arcada, a centennial coffeehouse in Comercio Square, surrounded by ministries, almost an "office" for his private business and literary concerns, where he used to meet friends in the 1920s and 1930s.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In 1925, Pessoa wrote in English a guidebook to Lisbon but it remained unpublished until 1992.<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.livroshorizonte.pt/catalogo_detalhe.php?idLivro=895 | last = Pessoa | first = Fernando | title = Lisboa: o que o turista deve ver | language = pt, en | place = Lisboa | publisher = Livros Horizonte | edition = 3rd | year = 2006 | orig-year = 1992 | access-date = 18 July 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110816174444/http://www.livroshorizonte.pt/catalogo_detalhe.php?idLivro=895 | archive-date = 16 August 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{citation | url = http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2008/pessoa_lisbon.html | last = Pessoa | first = Fernando | year = 2008 | title = Lisbon: what the tourist should see | place = Exeter, UK | publisher = Shearsman Books | access-date = 28 July 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110402025713/http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2008/pessoa_lisbon.html | archive-date = 2 April 2011 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}.</ref>

==Literature and mysticism==
Pessoa translated a number of Portuguese books into English such as ''The Songs of [[Antonio Botto]]''.<ref>{{citation|last=Boto|first=António|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5OLjUwbV34sC&q=Botto|title=The Songs of António Botto|date=2010|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-7100-7|language=en}}. Translated by Fernando Pessoa.</ref> He also translated various works into Portuguese such as ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]],<ref>Published in a serial in the Portuguese Journal ''Ilustração'', from 1 January 1926, without a reference to the translator, as usual.</ref> and the short stories "The Theory and the Hound", "The Roads We Take" and "Georgia's Ruling" by [[O. Henry]].<ref>''Athena'' nr. 3, December 1924, pp. 89–102 and nr. 5, February 1925, pp. 173–184.</ref> He has also translated into Portuguese the poems "[[Godiva]]" by [[Alfred Tennyson]], "[[Lucy]]" by [[William Wordsworth]], "Catarina to Camoens" by [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]],<ref>Fernando Pessoa, ''Obra Poética'', Rio de Janeiro: José Aguilar Editora, 1965.</ref> "[[Barbara Frietchie]]" by [[John Greenleaf Whittier]],<ref>''A Biblioteca Internacional de Obras Célebres'', volumes VI pp. 2807-2809, VII pp. 3534-3535, XX pp. 10215‑10218.</ref> and "[[The Raven]]", "[[Annabel Lee]]" and "[[Ulalume]]" by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]<ref>''Athena'' nr. 1, October 1924, pp. 27–29 and nr. 4, January 1925, pp. 161–164.</ref> who, along with [[Walt Whitman]], strongly influenced him.

As a translator, Pessoa had his own method:

[[File:Pessoa medium.jpg|thumb|200px|Pessoa's alleged mediumship: <br/>Automatic writing sample.]]

{{blockquote 
|A poem is an intellectualized impression, an idea made emotion, communicated by others by means of a rhythm. This rhythm is double in one, like the concave and convex aspects of the same arc: it is made up of a verbal or musical rhythm and of a visual or image rhythm which concurs inwardly with it. The translation of a poem should therefore conform absolutely (1) to the idea or emotion which constitutes the poem, (2) to the verbal rhythm in which that idea or emotion is expressed; it should conform relatively to the inner or visual rhythm, keeping to the images themselves when it can, but keeping always to the type of image.
It was on this criterion that I based my translation into Portuguese of Poe's "Annabel Lee" and "Ulalume", which I translated, not because of their great intrinsic worth, but because they were a standing challenge to translators.<ref>{{citation | last = Pessoa | first = Fernando | year = 1967 | title = Páginas de Estética e de Teoria e Crítica Literárias| place = Lisbon | publisher = Ática }}.</ref>}}

In addition, Pessoa translated into Portuguese some books by the leading [[theosophists]] [[Helena Blavatsky]], [[Charles Webster Leadbeater]], [[Annie Besant]], and [[Mabel Collins]].<ref>
[http://purl.pt/14427/2/ ''A Voz do Silêncio''] (The Voice of Silence) at the Portuguese National Library.
<br/>Besant, Annie (1915), ''Os Ideaes da Theosophia'', Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.<br/>
Leadbeater, C. W. (1915), ''Compêndio de Theosophia'', Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.<br/>
Leadbeater, C. W. (1916), ''Auxiliares Invisíveis'', Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.<br/>
Leadbeater, C. W. (1916), ''A Clarividência'', Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.<br/>
Blavatsky, Helena (1916), ''A Voz do Silêncio'', Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.<br/>
Collins, Mabel (1916), ''Luz Sobre o Caminho e o Karma'', Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.<br/>
</ref>

In 1912–14, while living with his aunt "Anica" and cousins,<ref>Ana Luísa Pinheiro Nogueira, his mother's sister was also his godmother, a widow with two children, Maria and Mário. She traveled to Switzerland in November 1914, with her daughter and son-in-law, recently married.</ref> Pessoa took part in "semi-spiritualist sessions" that were carried out at home, but he was considered a "delaying element" by the other members of the sessions. Pessoa's interest in [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]] was truly awakened in the second half of 1915, while translating [[theosophist]] books. This was further deepened in the end of March 1916, when he suddenly started having experiences where he believed he became a [[Mediumship|medium]], having experimented with [[automatic writing]].<ref name="auto">{{citation | last = Pessoa | first = Fernando | year = 1999 | title = Correspondência 1905–1922 | place = Lisbon | publisher = Assírio & Alvim | isbn = 978-85-7164-916-3}}.</ref> On June 24, 1916, Pessoa wrote an impressive letter to his aunt and godmother,<ref>{{citation |url= http://arquivopessoa.net/textos/531|title= Carta à Tia Anica - 24 Jun. 1916|author=Pessoa, Fernando |website= Arquivo Pessoa|publisher= MultiPessoa|access-date= 8 November 2020|language=pt }}</ref> then living in Switzerland with her daughter and son-in-law, in which he describes this "mystery case" that surprised him.<ref name="auto"/>

Besides automatic writing, Pessoa stated also that he had "astral" or "etherial visions" and was able to see "magnetic auras" similar to radiographic images. He felt "more curiosity than fear", but was respectful towards this phenomenon and asked secrecy, because "there is no advantage, but many disadvantages" in speaking about this. Mediumship exerted a strong influence in Pessoa's writings, who felt "sometimes suddenly being owned by something else" or having a "very curious sensation" in the right arm, which was "lifted into the air" without his will. Looking in the mirror, Pessoa saw several times what appeared to be the [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]]: his "face fading out" and being replaced by the one of "a bearded man", or in another instance, four men in total.<ref name="auto"/>

[[File:Ricardo Reis chart.jpg|alt=Ricardo Reis astral chart|thumb|300px|Astral chart of the [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronym]] ''Ricardo Reis'' by Fernando Pessoa.]]

Pessoa also developed a strong interest in [[astrology]], becoming a competent astrologer. He elaborated hundreds of [[horoscopes]], including well-known people such as [[William Shakespeare]], [[Lord Byron]], [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Chopin]], [[Robespierre]], [[Napoleon I]], [[Benito Mussolini]], [[Wilhelm II]], [[Leopold II of Belgium]], [[Victor Emmanuel III]], [[Alfonso XIII]], or the Kings [[Sebastian I of Portugal|Sebastian]] and [[Carlos I of Portugal|Charles]] of Portugal, and [[António de Oliveira Salazar|Salazar]]. In 1915, he created the heteronym Raphael Baldaya, an astrologer who planned to write "System of Astrology" and "Introduction to the Study of Occultism". Pessoa established the pricing of his astrological services from 500 to 5,000 [[Portuguese real|réis]] and made horoscopes of relatives, friends, customers, also of himself and astonishingly of the heteronyms and journals as ''Orpheu''.

The characters of the three main heteronyms were designed according to their horoscopes, with special reference to [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], the planet of literature. Each was also assigned to one of the four astral elements: air, fire, water and earth. For Pessoa, his heteronyms, taken together with his actual self, embodied the full principles of ancient knowledge. Astrology was part of his everyday life and he actively practiced it until his death.<ref>{{citation | last = Cardoso | first = Paulo | year = 2011 | title = Fernando Pessoa, cartas astrológicas | place = Lisbon | publisher = Bertrand editora | isbn = 978-972-25-2261-8}}.</ref>

[[File:FP_last_writing.jpg|thumb|300px|Pessoa's last writing: 29-11-1935 <br/>"I know not what tomorrow will bring". <br/> He died the next day, 30 November 1935.]]

As a [[mysticist]], Pessoa was an enthusiast of [[Western esotericism|esotericism]], [[occultism]], [[hermetism]], [[numerology]] and [[alchemy]]. Along with spiritualism and astrology, he also paid attention to [[gnosticism]], [[neopaganism]], [[Theosophy (Boehmian)|theosophy]], [[rosicrucianism]] and [[freemasonry]], which strongly influenced his literary work. He has declared himself a Pagan, in the sense of an "intellectual mystic of the sad race of the Neoplatonists from Alexandria" and a believer in "the Gods, their agency and their real and materially superior existence".<ref>{{citation |url= http://multipessoa.net/labirinto/filosofia/17|title= Pessoa é solicitado para escrever um volume teórico de introdução ao Neopaganismo Português|author=Pessoa, Fernando |date= 1917|publisher= MultiPessoa|access-date= 13 February 2018|language=pt |quote=Eu sou um pagão decadente, do tempo do outono da Beleza; do sonolecer [?] da limpidez antiga, místico intelectual da raça triste dos neoplatónicos da Alexandria. Como eles creio, e absolutamente creio, nos Deuses, na sua agência e na sua existência real e materialmente superior. Como eles creio nos semi-deuses, os homens que o esforço e a (...) ergueram ao sólio dos imortais; porque, como disse Píndaro, «a raça dos deuses e dos homens é uma só». Como eles creio que acima de tudo, pessoa impassível, causa imóvel e convicta [?], paira o Destino, superior ao bem e ao mal, estranho à Beleza e à Fealdade, além da Verdade e da Mentira. Mas não creio que entre o Destino e os Deuses haja só o oceano turvo [...] o céu mudo da Noite eterna. Creio, como os neoplatónicos, no Intermediário Intelectual, Logos na linguagem dos filósofos, Cristo (depois) na mitologia cristã.}}</ref> His interest in occultism led Pessoa to correspond with [[Aleister Crowley]] and later helped him to elaborate a fake suicide, when Crowley visited Portugal in 1930.<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.nthposition.com/themagicalworldof.php | publisher = Nthposition | title = The magical world of Fernando Pessoa | access-date = 1 November 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170908112435/http://www.nthposition.com/themagicalworldof.php | archive-date = 8 September 2017 | url-status = dead }}.</ref> Pessoa translated Crowley's poem "Hymn To Pan"<ref>''Presença'' nr. 33 (July–October 1931).</ref> into Portuguese, and the catalogue of Pessoa's library shows that he possessed Crowley's books ''Magick in Theory and Practice'' and ''Confessions''. Pessoa also wrote on Crowley's doctrine of [[Thelema]] in several fragments, including ''Moral''.<ref>{{Citation
| volume = 9
| issue = 5
| pages = 4–11
| last = PASI
| first = Marco
| title = The Influence of Aleister Crowley on Fernando Pessoa's Esoteric Writings
| journal = The Magical Link
| year = 2002
| postscript = .
}}</ref>

Pessoa declared about secret societies:

{{blockquote |I am also very interested in knowing whether a second edition is shortly to be expected of Arthur Edward Waite's ''The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry''. I see that, in a note on page 14 of his ''Emblematic Freemasonry'', published by you in 1925, he says, in respect of the earlier work: "A new and revised edition is in the forefront of my literary schemes." For all I know, you may already have issued such an edition; if so, I have missed the reference in ''The Times Literary Supplement''. Since I am writing on these subjects, I should like to put a question which perhaps you can reply to; but please do not do so if the reply involves any inconvenience. I believe ''The Occult Review'' was, or is, issued by yourselves; I have not seen any number for a long time. My question is in what issue of that publication – it was certainly a long while ago – an article was printed relating to the Roman Catholic Church as a Secret Society, or, alternatively, to a Secret Society within the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>Fernando Pessoa, letter to Rider & C., Paternoster Row, London, E.C.4., 20 October 1933. In Pessoa, Fernando. ''Correspondência 1923–1935'', ed. Manuela Parreira da Silva. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 1999, pp. 311–312.</ref>}}

Literary critic [[Martin Lüdke]] described Pessoa's philosophy as a kind of [[pandeism]], especially those writings under the [[heteronym (literature)|heteronym]] Alberto Caeiro.<ref>[[Martin Lüdke]], "Ein moderner Hüter der Dinge; Die Entdeckung des großen Portugiesen geht weiter: Fernando Pessoa hat in der Poesie Alberto Caeiros seinen Meister gesehen", ("A modern guardian of things; The discovery of the great Portuguese continues: Fernando Pessoa saw its master in the poetry of Alberto Caeiro"), ''[[Frankfurter Rundschau]]'', 18 August 2004. "Caeiro unterläuft die Unterscheidung zwischen dem Schein und dem, was etwa "Denkerge-danken" hinter ihm ausmachen wollen. Die Dinge, wie er sie sieht, sind als was sie scheinen. Sein Pan-Deismus basiert auf einer Ding-[[metaphysics|Metaphysik]], die in der modernen Dichtung des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts noch Schule machen sollte." ''Translation'': "Caeiro interposes the distinction between the light and what "philosopher thoughts" want to constitute behind him. The things, as he sees them, are as they seem. His pandeism is based on a metaphysical thing, which should still become a school of thought under the modern seal of the twentieth century."</ref>

==Writing a lifetime==
[[File:Pessoacopo.jpg|thumb|200px|Pessoa in 1929, drinking a glass of wine in a tavern of Lisbon's downtown.]]

In his early years, Pessoa was influenced by major English classic poets such as [[Shakespeare]], [[John Milton|Milton]] and [[Alexander Pope|Pope]], and romantics like [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], [[Lord Byron|Byron]], [[John Keats|Keats]], [[Wordsworth]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]] and [[Tennyson]].<ref>{{citation | last = Zenith | first = Richard | year = 2008 | title = Fotobiografias do Século XX: Fernando Pessoa | place = Lisboa | publisher = Círculo de Leitores | pages = 40–41}}.</ref> After his return to Lisbon in 1905, Pessoa was influenced by French [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolists]] and [[decadentism|decadents]] such as [[Charles Baudelaire]], [[Maurice Rollinat]], and [[Stéphane Mallarmé]]. He was also importantly influenced by  [[Portuguese poetry|Portuguese poets]] such as [[Antero de Quental]], [[Gomes Leal]], [[Cesário Verde]], [[António Nobre]], [[Camilo Pessanha]] and [[Teixeira de Pascoaes]]. Later on, he was also influenced by the [[modernism|modernists]] [[W. B. Yeats]], [[James Joyce]], [[Ezra Pound]] and [[T. S. Eliot]], among many other writers.<ref name= "Zenith, Richard 2008"/>

During [[World War I]], Pessoa wrote to a number of British publishers, namely Constable & Co. Ltd. (currently [[Constable & Robinson]]), trying to arrange publication of his collection of English verse ''The Mad Fiddler'' (unpublished during his lifetime), but it was refused. However, in 1920, the prestigious literary journal ''[[Athenaeum (British magazine)|Athenaeum]]'' included one of those poems.<ref>{{citation | last = Terlinden | first = Anne | year = 1990 | title = Fernando Pessoa, the bilingual Portuguese poet: A Critical Study of "The Mad Fidler" | place = Bruxelles | publisher = Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pofTVSteuaIC | isbn = 978-2-8028-0075-0}}.</ref> Since the attempt at British publication failed, in 1918 Pessoa published in Lisbon two slim volumes of English verse: ''[[Antinous]]''<ref>{{citation | url = http://purl.pt/13961/2/ | title = Antinous | publisher = at the Portuguese National Library}}f.</ref> and ''[[35 Sonnets]]'',<ref>{{citation|title=35 sonnets|location=Lisbon |date= 1918 |website=Biblioteca Nacional Digital|url=https://purl.pt/13963|access-date=2023-02-04}}</ref> received by the British literary press without enthusiasm.<ref>''The Times Literary Supplement'', 19 September 1918. ''Athenaeum'', January 1919.</ref> Along with some friends, he founded another publishing house, Olisipo, which published in 1921 a further two English poetry volumes: ''English Poems I–II'' and ''English Poems III'' by Fernando Pessoa. In his publishing house, Pessoa also issued some books by his friends: ''A Invenção do Dia Claro'' (The Invention of the Clear Day) by [[José de Almada Negreiros]], ''Canções'' (Songs) by [[António Botto]], and ''Sodoma Divinizada'' (Deified [[Sodom and Gomorrah|Sodom]]) by [[Raul Leal]] (Henoch). Olisipo closed down in 1923, following the scandal known as "Literatura de Sodoma" (Literature of Sodom), which Pessoa started with his paper "António Botto e o Ideal Estético em Portugal" (António Botto and the Aesthetic Ideal in Portugal), published in the journal ''Contemporanea''.<ref>[http://hemerotecadigital.cm-lisboa.pt/OBRAS/CONTEMPORANEA/Contemporanea.htm''Contemporanea''], May–July 1922, pp. 121–126.</ref>

Politically, Pessoa described himself as "a British-style [[Conservatism|conservative]], that is to say, liberal within conservatism and absolutely anti-reactionary," and adhered closely to the [[Herbert Spencer|Spencerian]] individualism of his upbringing.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{citation |last1=Barreto |first1=Jose |title=Salazar and the New State in the Writings of Fernando Pessoa |journal=Portuguese Studies |date=2008 |volume=24 |issue=2 |page=169|doi=10.1353/port.2008.0011 |s2cid=245848666 }}</ref> He described his brand of nationalism as "mystic, cosmopolitan, liberal, and [[Anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]]."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He was an outspoken elitist and aligned himself against communism, socialism, fascism and Catholicism.<ref>{{citation | last = Serrão (int. and org.) | first = Joel | year = 1980 | title = Fernando Pessoa, Ultimatum e Páginas de Sociologia Política | place = Lisboa | publisher = Ática.}}</ref> He initially rallied to the [[First Portuguese Republic]] but the ensuing instability caused him to reluctantly support the military coups of 1917 and [[28 May 1926 coup d'état|1926]] as a means of restoring order and preparing the transition to a new constitutional normality.<ref>{{citation |last1=Barreto |first1=Jose |title=Salazar and the New State in the Writings of Fernando Pessoa |journal=Portuguese Studies |date=2008 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=170–172|doi=10.1353/port.2008.0011 |s2cid=245848666 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |last1=Sadlier |first1=Darlene J. |title=Nationalism, Modernity, and the Formation of Fernando Pessoa's Aesthetic |journal=Luso-Brazilian Review |date=Winter 1997 |volume=34 |issue=2 |page=110}}</ref> He wrote a pamphlet in 1928 supportive of the military dictatorship<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ferreira |first=Oscar |date=2024-07-08 |title=Un défenseur ésotérique de la dictature militaire : Fernando Pessoa |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-d-histoire-des-idees-politiques-2024-1-page-113.htm?ref=doi |journal=Revue Française d'Histoire des Idées Politiques |volume=1  |issue=59 |pages=113–168 |doi=10.3917/rfhip1.059.0113 |issn=1266-7862|url-access=subscription }}</ref> but after the establishment of the [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|New State]], in 1933, Pessoa became disenchanted with the regime and wrote critically of Salazar and fascism in general, maintaining a hostile stance towards its corporatist program, illiberalism, and censorship.<ref>{{citation |last1=Barreto |first1=Jose |title=Salazar and the New State in the Writings of Fernando Pessoa |journal=Portuguese Studies |date=2008 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=170–173|doi=10.1353/port.2008.0011 |s2cid=245848666 }}</ref> In the beginning of 1935, Pessoa was banned by the [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Salazar regime]], after he wrote in defense of [[Freemasonry]].<ref>Darlene Joy Sadlier ''An introduction to Fernando Pessoa: modernism and the paradoxes of authorship'', University Press of Florida, 1998, pp. 44–7.</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Pessoa|first=Fernando|title=Uma Apologia Da Maçonaria Portuguesa|url=https://www.maconaria.net/fernando-pessoa-uma-apologia-da-maconaria-portuguesa/|access-date=2023-02-04|language=pt-PT |website=maconaria.net}}</ref> The regime also suppressed two articles Pessoa wrote in which he condemned Mussolini's [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|invasion of Abyssinia]] and fascism as a threat to human liberty everywhere.<ref>{{citation |last1=Barreto |first1=José |title=Fernando Pessoa e a invasão da Abissínia pela Itália fascista |journal=Análise Social |date=2009 |volume=XLIV |issue=193 |pages=693–718}}</ref>

[[File:Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (4165933507).jpg|thumb|200px|Pessoa's tomb in Lisbon, at the cloister of the [[Jerónimos Monastery|Hieronymites Monastery]] since 1985.]]
[[File:Arca.png|thumb|Pessoa's assets: the chest, with more than 25,000 pages, and part of his personal library]]

On 29 November 1935, Pessoa was taken to the Hospital de São Luís, suffering from abdominal pain and a high fever; there he wrote, in English, his last words: "I know not what tomorrow will bring."<ref name="Ciuraru">{{citation|title=Fernando Pessoa & His Heteronyms|url=https://poetrysociety.org/poems-essays/tributes/fernando-pessoa-his-heteronyms|access-date=2023-02-04|website=Poetry Society of America|language=en}}</ref> He died the next day, 30 November 1935, around 8 pm, aged 47. His cause of death is commonly given as [[cirrhosis]] of the liver, due to alcoholism,<ref>{{citation|title=Fernando Pessoa, Poet, Publisher, and Translator |url=https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1983articles/pdf/article12.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214102429/https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1983articles/pdf/article12.pdf |archive-date=14 February 2017 |access-date=2023-02-04 |website=[[British Library Journal]] |page=162 |author=R. W. Howes |date=1983}}</ref><ref name="Ciuraru"/><ref>{{citation|date=1995-05-30|title=Will the real Pessoa step forward?|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/will-the-real-pessoa-step-forward-1621878.html|access-date=2023-02-04|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> though this is disputed: others attribute his death to [[pancreatitis]] (again from alcoholism),<ref>{{citation|last=Pessoa|first=Fernando|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXeTWvhYo_wC&dq=fernando%2520pessoa%2520%2522cirrhosis%2522&pg=PT163|title=Fernando Pessoa & Co.: Selected Poems|date=2007-12-01|publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic|isbn=978-0-8021-9851-8|language=en |page=163}}</ref><ref>Ferreira, Francisco Manuel da Fonseca, ''O Hábito de Beber no Contexto Existencial e Poético de Femando Pessoa.'' Oporto: Laboratorios Bial, 1995.</ref> or other ailments.<ref>{{citation
|title=A propósito da morte de Fernando Pessoa. O diagnóstico diferencial da cólica hepática.
|trans-title=The death of Fernando Pessoa. The differential diagnosis of liver colic.
|language=pt
|first=Ireneu
|last=Cruz
|url=http://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/revista/index.php/amp/article/view/2389/0
|pmid=9235856
|journal=Acta Med Port
|year=1997
|volume=10
|number=2-3 (Feb/Mar)
|pages=221–224
}}</ref>

In his lifetime, he published four books in English and one alone in Portuguese: ''Mensagem'' (Message). However, he left a lifetime of unpublished, unfinished or just sketchy work in a domed, wooden trunk (25,574<ref>Caption to photo 32, opposite page 115, in: Lisboa, E. and Taylor, L. C., eds; with an introduction by Paz, O. (1995), ''A Centenary Pessoa'', Manchester: Carcanet Press Limited.</ref> manuscript and typed pages which have been housed in the Portuguese National Library since 1988). The heavy burden of editing this huge work is still in progress. In 1985 (fifty years after his death), Pessoa's remains were moved to the [[Jerónimos Monastery|Hieronymites Monastery]], in Lisbon, where [[Vasco da Gama]], [[Luís de Camões]], and [[Alexandre Herculano]] are also buried.<ref>[http://www.mosteirojeronimos.pt/pt/index.php?s=white&pid=227&identificador Mosteiro dos Jerónimos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102080312/http://www.mosteirojeronimos.pt/pt/index.php?s=white&pid=227&identificador |date=2 January 2017 }} Fernando Pessoa</ref> Pessoa's portrait was on the 100[[Portuguese escudo|-escudo]] banknote.

==The triumphant day==

{{blockquote 
|[…] on 8 March 1914 – I found myself standing before a tall chest of drawers, took up a piece of paper, began to write, remaining upright all the while since I always stand when I can. I wrote thirty some poems in a row, all in a kind of ecstasy, the nature of which I shall never fathom. It was the triumphant day of my life, and I shall never have another like it. I began with a title, The Keeper of Sheep. And what followed was the appearance of someone within me to whom I promptly assigned the name of Alberto Caeiro. Please excuse the absurdity of what I am about to say, but there had appeared within me, then and there, my own master. It was my immediate sensation. So much so that, with those thirty odd poems written, I immediately took up another sheet of paper and wrote as well, in a row, the six poems that make up "Oblique Rain" by Fernando Pessoa. Immediately and totally... It was the return from Fernando Pessoa/Alberto Caeiro to Fernando Pessoa alone. Or better still, it was Fernando Pessoa's reaction to his own inexistence as Alberto Caeiro.<ref>{{citation|title="Letter to Adolfo Casais Monteiro" translation from "Imaginary poets in a real world" |first=George |last= Monteiro |date= Spring 2016 |page=301 |journal=Pessoa Plural |issue=9|url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/pessoaplural/Issue9/Issue9Part2.pdf|access-date=2023-02-04}}</ref>
}}
As the heteronym Coelho Pacheco, over a long period Pessoa's "triumphant day" was taken as real, however, it has been proved that this event was one more fiction created by Pessoa.<ref>Castro, Ivo, "O corpus de 'O Guardador de Rebanhos' depositado na Biblioteca Nacional", Separata da ''Revista da Biblioteca Nacional'', vol. 2, n.º 1, 1982, pp. 47-61.</ref>

==Heteronyms==
{{More citations needed|section|date=March 2024}}[[File:Lisboa-Pessoa-A Brasileira-1.jpg|thumb|200px|Pessoa's statue outside Lisbon's famous coffeehouse [[A Brasileira]].]]

Pessoa's earliest [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronym]], at the age of six, was Chevalier de Pas, a fictitious knight whom he wrote to himself as.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Zenith |first=Richard |date=2021-07-22 |title=The Heteronymous Identities of Fernando Pessoa |url=https://lithub.com/the-heteronymous-identities-of-fernando-pessoa/ |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}</ref> Other childhood heteronyms included the poet Dr. Pancrácio and short story writer David Merrick, followed by Charles Robert Anon, a young Englishman who became Pessoa's [[alter ego]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=MODERN!SMO.pt |title=Pancrácio |url=https://modernismo.pt/index.php/p/699-pancracio |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=modernismo.pt |language=pt-PT}}</ref><ref name="Ciuraru" /> When Pessoa was a student at the [[University of Lisbon]], Anon was replaced by Alexander Search. Search represented a transition heteronym that Pessoa used while searching to adapt to the Portuguese cultural reality. As a result, Pessoa would write many English poems, specifically sonnets, and short stories under the Search heteronym, including "A Very Original Dinner", which was posthumously published after its recovery and subsequent reproduction by Portuguese literary historian Maria Leonor Machado de Sousa.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Kenneth David |date=2016 |title=Pessoa's Voluptuous Skepticism |url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/pessoaplural/Issue10/PDF/I10A02.pdf |journal=Pessoa Plural |volume=10 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sublunary Editions {{!}} Independent publisher |url=https://sublunaryeditions.com/products/a-very-original-dinner-fernando-pessoa |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=sublunaryeditions.com}}</ref> After the [[5 October 1910 revolution]] and its subsequently patriotic atmosphere, Pessoa created another alter ego, [[Álvaro de Campos]], supposedly a Portuguese naval and mechanical engineer, who was born in [[Tavira]], hometown of Pessoa's ancestors, and graduated in [[Glasgow]].<ref name=":0" /> Translator and literary critic Richard Zenith notes that Pessoa eventually established at least seventy-two heteronyms.<ref>''The Book of Disquiet'', tr. Richard Zenith, Penguin classics, 2003.</ref> According to Pessoa himself, Zenith says, there were three main heteronyms of them all: [[Alberto Caeiro]], Álvaro de Campos, and [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]]. Pessoa's [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]] differ from pen names, as they possess distinct biographies, temperaments, philosophies, appearances, writing styles, and even signatures.<ref>Letter to Adolfo Casais Monteiro, 13 January 1935.</ref> Thus, [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]] often disagree on various topics as well as argue and discuss with each other about literature, aesthetics, philosophy, and so on.

Regarding the heteronyms, Pessoa wrote:
{{blockquote |How do I write in the name of these three? Caeiro, through sheer and unexpected inspiration, without knowing or even suspecting that I'm going to write in his name. Ricardo Reis, after an abstract meditation, which suddenly takes concrete shape in an ode. Campos, when I feel a sudden impulse to write and don't know what. (My semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares, who in many ways resembles Álvaro de Campos, always appears when I'm sleepy or drowsy, so that my qualities of inhibition and rational thought are suspended; his prose is an endless reverie. He's a semi-heteronym because his personality, although not my own, doesn't differ from my own but is a mere mutilation of it. He's me without my rationalism and emotions. His prose is the same as mine, except for certain formal restraint that reason imposes on my own writing, and his Portuguese is exactly the same – whereas Caeiro writes bad Portuguese, Campos writes it reasonably well but with mistakes such as "me myself" instead of "I myself", etc.., and Reis writes better than I, but with a purism I find excessive...).<ref>"Letter to Adolfo Casais Monteiro", 13 January 1935, in Pessoa, Fernando (2003), ''The Book of Disquiet'', tr. Richard Zenith. London: Penguin classics, p. 474.</ref>}}

{{clear}}

===Pessoa's heteronyms, pseudonyms, and characters===
{{unreferenced section|date=January 2022}}

{| class="sortable wikitable" width="100%" size=="50%"

! No. !! Name !! Type !! Notes
|-
| 1 || Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa || Himself || Commercial correspondent in Lisbon
|-
| 2 || Fernando Pessoa || [[Orthonym]]|| Poet and prose writer
|-
| 3 || Fernando Pessoa || Autonym || Poet and prose writer
|-
| 4 || Fernando Pessoa || Heteronym || Poet; a pupil of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 5 || [[Alberto Caeiro]] || Heteronym || Poet; author of ''O guardador de Rebanhos'', ''O Pastor Amoroso'' and ''Poemas inconjuntos''; master of heteronyms Fernando Pessoa, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis and António Mora
|-
| 6 || [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]] || Heteronym || Poet and prose writer, author of ''Odes'' and texts on the work of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 7 || Federico Reis || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Essayist; brother of Ricardo Reis, upon whom he writes
|-
| 8 || [[Álvaro de Campos]] || Heteronym || Poet and prose writer; a pupil of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 9 || António Mora || Heteronym || Philosopher and sociologist; theorist of [[Neopaganism]]; a pupil of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 10 || Claude Pasteur || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || French translator of ''Cadernos de reconstrução pagã'' conducted by António Mora
|-
| 11 || {{ill|Bernardo Soares|pt}} || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Poet and prose writer; author of the second phase of ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]''
|-
| 12 || Vicente Guedes || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Translator, poet; director of Ibis Press; author of a paper; author of the first phase of ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]''
|-
| 13 || Gervasio Guedes || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Author of the text "A Coroação de Jorge Quinto"
|-
| 14 || {{ill|Alexander Search|pt}} || Heteronym || Poet and short story writer
|-
| 15 || Charles James Search || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Translator and essayist; brother of Alexander Search
|-
| 16 || Jean-Méluret of Seoul || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || French poet and essayist
|-
| 17 || Rafael Baldaya || Heteronym || Astrologer; author of ''Tratado da Negação'' and ''Princípios de Metaphysica Esotérica''
|-
| 18 || Barão de Teive || Heteronym || Prose writer; author of ''Educação do Stoica'' and ''Daphnis e Chloe''
|-
| 19 || Charles Robert Anon || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Poet, philosopher and story writer
|-
| 20 || A. A. Crosse || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Author and puzzle-solver
|-
| 21 || Thomas Crosse || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || English epic character/occultist, popularized in Portuguese culture
|-
| 22 || I. I. Crosse || Heteronym / Para-heteronym ||
|-
| 23 || David Merrick || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Poet, storyteller and playwright
|-
| 24 || Lucas Merrick || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Short story writer; perhaps brother or David Merrick
|-
| 25 || Pêro Botelho || Heteronym / Pseudonym || Short story writer and author of letters
|-
| 26 || Abilio Quaresma || Heteronym / Character / Meta-heteronym || Character inspired by Pêro Botelho and author of short detective stories
|-
| 27 || Inspector Guedes || Character / Meta-heteronym? || Character inspired by Pêro Botelho and author of short detective stories
|-
| 28 || Uncle Pork || Pseudonym / Character || Character inspired by Pêro Botelho and author of short detective stories
|-
| 29 || Frederick Wyatt || Alias / Heteronym || English poet and prose writer
|-
| 30 || Rev. Walter Wyatt || Character || Possibly brother of Frederick Wyatt
|-
| 31 || Alfred Wyatt || Character || Another brother of Frederick Wyatt and resident of Paris
|-
| 32 || Maria José || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Wrote and signed "A Carta da Corcunda para o Serralheiro"
|-
| 33 || Chevalier de Pas || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Author of poems and letters
|-
| 34 || Efbeedee Pasha || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Author of humoristic stories
|-
| 35 || Faustino Antunes / A. Moreira || Heteronym / Pseudonym || Psychologist and author of ''Ensaio sobre a Intuição''
|-
| 36 || Carlos Otto || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Poet and author of ''Tratado de Lucta Livre''
|-
| 37 || Michael Otto || Pseudonym / Para-heteronym || Probably brother of Carlos Otto who was entrusted with the translation into English of ''Tratado de Lucta Livre''
|-
| 38 || Sebastian Knight || Proto-heteronym / Alias ||
|-
| 39 || Horace James Faber || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || English short story writer and essayist
|-
| 40 || Navas || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Translated Horace James Faber in Portuguese
|-
| 41 || Pantaleão || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Poet and prose writer
|-
| 42 || Torquato Fonseca Mendes da Cunha Rey || Heteronym / Meta-heteronym || Deceased author of a text Pantaleão decided to publish
|-
| 43 || Joaquim Moura Costa || Proto-heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Satirical poet; Republican activist; member of ''O Phosphoro''
|-
| 44 || Sher Henay || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Compiler and author of the preface of a sensationalist anthology in English
|-
| 45 || Anthony Gomes || Semi-heteronym / Character || Philosopher; author of "Historia Cómica do Affonso Çapateiro"
|-
| 46 || Professor Trochee || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of an essay with humorous advice for young poets
|-
| 47 || Willyam Links Esk || Character || Signed a letter written in English on 13 April 1905
|-
| 48 || António de Seabra || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Literary critic
|-
| 49 || João Craveiro || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Journalist; follower of Sidonio Pereira
|-
| 50 || Tagus || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''Natal Mercury'' (Durban, South Africa)
|-
| 51 || Pipa Gomes || Draft heteronym || Collaborator in ''O Phosphoro''
|-
| 52 || Ibis || Character / Pseudonym || Character from Pessoa's childhood accompanying him until the end of his life; also signed poems
|-
| 53 || Dr. Gaudencio Turnips || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || English-Portuguese journalist and humorist; director of ''O Palrador''
|-
| 54 || Pip || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Poet and author of humorous anecdotes; predecessor of Dr. Pancrácio
|-
| 55 || Dr. Pancrácio || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Storyteller, poet and creator of charades
|-
| 56 || Luís António Congo || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; columnist and presenter of Eduardo Lança
|-
| 57 || Eduardo Lança || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Luso-Brazilian poet
|-
| 58 || A. Francisco de Paula Angard || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of "Textos scientificos"
|-
| 59 || Pedro da Silva Salles / Zé Pad || Proto-heteronym / Alias || Author and director of the section of anecdotes at ''O Palrador''
|-
| 60 || José Rodrigues do Valle / Scicio || Proto-heteronym / Alias || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades; literary manager
|-
| 61 || Dr. Caloiro || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; reporter and author of ''A pesca das pérolas''
|-
| 62 || Adolph Moscow || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; novelist and author of ''Os Rapazes de Barrowby''
|-
| 63 || Marvell Kisch || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of a novel announced in ''O Palrador'', called  ''A Riqueza de um Doido''
|-
| 64 || Gabriel Keene || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of a novel announced in ''O Palrador'', called  ''Em Dias de Perigo''
|-
| 65 || Sableton-Kay || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of a novel announced in ''O Palrador'', called  ''A Lucta Aérea''
|-
| 66 || Morris & Theodor || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 67 || Diabo Azul || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 68 || Parry || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 69 || Gallião Pequeno || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 70 || Urban Accursio || Alias || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 71 || Cecília || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 72 || José Rasteiro || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of proverbs and riddles
|-
| 73 || Nympha Negra || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 74 || Diniz da Silva || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Author of the poem "Loucura"; collaborator in ''Europe''
|-
| 75 || Herr Prosit || Pseudonym || Translator of ''[[El estudiante de Salamanca]]'' by [[José Espronceda]]
|-
| 76 || Henry More || Proto-heteronym || Author and prose writer
|-
| 77 || Wardour || Character? || Poet
|-
| 78 || J. M. Hyslop || Character? || Poet
|-
| 79 || Vadooisf ? || Character? || Poet
|-
| 80 || Nuno Reis || Pseudonym || Son of Ricardo Reis
|-
| 81 || João Caeiro || Character? || Son of Alberto Caeiro and Ana Taveira
|-
|}

===Alberto Caeiro===
[[Alberto Caeiro]] was the first heteronym which Pessoa considered to be great or seminal. Through that heteronym, Pessoa wrote exclusively poetry. According to an anthology edited by Jerónimo Pizarro and Patricio Ferrari titled ''The Collected Works of Alberto Caeiro'', "This imaginary author was a shepherd who spent most of his life in the countryside, had almost no education, and was ignorant of most literature."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa {{!}} New Directions |url=https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-complete-works-of-alberto-caeiro/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=www.ndbooks.com |language=en}}</ref>

Critics note that Caeiro's poems demonstrate wide-eyed childlike wonder at nature. [[Octavio Paz]], in translating his work, refers to him as an "innocent poet".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-21 |title="Octavio Paz: Paths Towards the Untranslatable" by Christian Elguera - Latin American Literature Today |url=https://latinamericanliteraturetoday.org/2021/02/octavio-paz-paths-towards-untranslatable-christian-elguera/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |language=en-US}}</ref> Specifically, Paz observes Caeiro's willingness to accept reality as such rather than attempting to dress it up in what other poets would consider to be aesthetic. Rather than using poetry as an interpretative and transformative device, Paz argues, Caeiro simply wrote poetry as such. In other words, Caeiro's method is [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] as opposed to [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]].<ref>Paz, Octavio (1983), "El Desconocido de Si Mismo: Fernando Pessoa", in ''Los Signos en Rotacion y Otros Ensayos'', Madrid: Alianza Editorial.</ref>

Such a philosophy makes Caeiro contrast greatly with his creator, Pessoa, who was deferential to modernism and thus interrogates the world around him rather than merely experience it. Pessoa regarded him as follows: "He sees things with the eyes only, not with the mind. He does not let any thoughts arise when he looks at a flower ... the only thing a stone tells him is that it has nothing at all to tell him ... this way of looking at a stone may be described as the totally unpoetic way of looking at it. The stupendous fact about Caeiro is that out of this sentiment, or rather, absence of sentiment, he makes poetry."<ref>{{citation |title=Fernando Pessoa & Co. : selected poems|last1=Pessoa|first1=Fernando |date=1998|publisher=Grove Press|last2=Zenith |first2=Richard |isbn=0802116280|edition=1st |location=New York|pages=40|oclc=38055974}}</ref>

The critic Jane M. Sheets notes that the creation of Caeiro was a necessary precursor to the later heteronyms to follow by providing a universalizing poetic vision from which others could be derived. While Caeiro was a short-lived heteronym in Pessoa's career, it established several tenets which would inevitably appear in the works of Campos, Reis, and Pessoa's own work.<ref>Sheets, Jane M., Fernando Pessoa as Anti-Poet: Alberto Caeiro, ''in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'', Vol. XLVI, Nr. 1, January 1969, pp. 39–47.</ref>

===Ricardo Reis===

[[File:Athena_Revista_de_Arte N.1 Outubro 1924.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Athena — Art Journal'' <br> (5 issues edited by Pessoa and Ruy Vaz in 1924–1925), published poetry by Pessoa, ''Ricardo Reis'', and ''Alberto Caeiro'', as well as essays by ''[[Álvaro de Campos]]''.]]

In a letter to William Bentley,<ref>This letter, to the director of the journal ''Portugal'', was written on 31 October 1924, to announce Pessoa's art journal ''Athena''.</ref>  Pessoa wrote that "a ''knowledge'' of the language would be indispensable, for instance, to appraise the 'Odes' of [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]], whose Portuguese would draw upon him the blessing of [[António Vieira]], as his stile and diction that of [[Horace]] (he has been called, admirably I believe, 'a Greek Horace who writes in Portuguese')".<ref>Pessoa, Fernando (1999), ''Correspondência 1923–1935'', ed. Manuela Parreira da Silva. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, p.53, {{ISBN|972-37-0531-1}}.</ref>

Reis, both a character and a heteronym of Fernando Pessoa himself,<ref>{{citation|last1=Jones|first1=Marilyn Scarantino|title=Pessoa's Poetic Coterie: Three Heteronyms and an Orthonym|journal=Luso-Brazilian Review|date=1 January 1977|volume=14|issue=2|pages=254–262 |jstor=3513064}}</ref> sums up his philosophy of life in his own words, admonishing, "See life from a distance. Never question it. There's nothing it can tell you." Like Caeiro, whom he admires, Reis defers from questioning life. He prides himself as a modern pagan who urges one to seize the day and accept fate with tranquility. "Wise is the one who does not seek. The seeker will find in all things the abyss, and doubt in himself."<ref>{{citation
|author1=Reis, Ricardo (pseud.)
|title=Enquanto eu vir o sol luzir nas folhas
|website=Arquivo Pessoa
|url=http://arquivopessoa.net/textos/1980
|access-date=2021-09-12
|language=Portuguese
|date=1927-06-16
|quote=Sábio deveras o que não procura, / Que, procurando, achara o abismo em tudo / E a dúvida em si mesmo.}}</ref> In such sense, Reis shares essential affinities with Caeiro.

Believing in the [[Greek mythology|Greek gods]], yet living in a Christian Europe, Reis feels that his spiritual life is limited and true happiness cannot be attained. Such feeling—paired with his belief in Fate as a driving force for all that exists and thus disregarding freedom—leads to his [[epicureanism|epicureanist]] philosophy, which entails the avoidance of pain, defending that man should seek tranquility and calm above all else, avoiding emotional extremes.

Where Caeiro wrote freely and spontaneously, with joviality, of his basic, meaningless connection to the world, Reis writes in an austere, cerebral manner, with premeditated rhythm and structure and a particular attention to the correct use of the language when approaching his subjects of, as characterized by Richard Zenith, "the brevity of life, the vanity of wealth and struggle, the joy of simple pleasures, patience in time of trouble, and avoidance of extremes".

In his detached, intellectual approach, he is closer to Fernando Pessoa's constant rationalization, as such representing the orthonym's wish for measure and sobriety and a world free of troubles and respite, in stark contrast to Caeiro's spirit and style. As such, where Caeiro's predominant attitude is that of joviality, his sadness being accepted as natural ("My sadness is a comfort for it is natural and right."), Reis is marked by melancholy, saddened by the impermanence of all things.

Ricardo Reis is the main character of [[José Saramago]]'s 1986 novel ''[[The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Year Of The Death Of Ricardo Reis |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis-jose-saramago?variant=39937685061666 |access-date=July 12, 2024 |website=HarperCollins Publishers}}</ref>

===Álvaro de Campos===
{{Main|Álvaro de Campos}}

[[File:Portugal Futurista 1 1917.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Portugal Futurista'', the art journal that published ''Campos''' "Ultimatum" in 1917.]]

[[Álvaro de Campos]] manifests, in a way, as a hyperbolic version of Pessoa himself. Of the three heteronyms he is the one who feels most strongly, his motto being 'to feel everything in every way.' 'The best way to travel,' he wrote, 'is to feel.' As such, his poetry is the most emotionally intense and varied, constantly juggling two fundamental impulses: on the one hand a feverish desire to be and feel everything and everyone, declaring that 'in every corner of my soul stands an altar to a different god' (alluding to [[Walt Whitman]]'s desire to '[[Song of Myself#"Self"|contain multitudes]]'), on the other, a wish for a state of isolation and a sense of nothingness.

As a result, his mood and principles varied between violent, dynamic exultation, as he fervently wishes to experience the entirety of the universe in himself, in all manners possible (a particularly distinctive trait in this state being his [[Futurism (art)|futuristic]] leanings, including the expression of great enthusiasm as to the meaning of city life and its components) and a state of nostalgic melancholy, where life is viewed as, essentially, empty.

One of the poet's constant preoccupations, as part of his dichotomous character, is that of identity: he does not know who he is, or rather, fails at achieving an ideal identity. Wanting to be everything, and inevitably failing, he despairs. Unlike Caeiro, who asks nothing of life, he asks too much. In his poetic meditation 'Tobacco Shop' he asks:

{{blockquote|How should I know what I'll be, I who don't know what I am?<br>
To be what I think? But I think of being so many things!}}

==Summaries of selected works==
{{More citations needed|section|date=March 2024}}

===''Message''===
[[File:1edicao Mensagem 1934.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Mensagem'', first edition, 1934.]]

''[[Mensagem]]'',<ref name= "FPMessagemEdEF2016">{{citation |author-last= Pessoa |author-first= Fernando |editor-last= Freitas |editor-first= Eduardo |year=2016 |language= pt |title= A Mensagem: Editado Por Eduardo Filipe Freitas |publisher= CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn= 978-1-535-19909-4}}</ref> written in Portuguese, is a symbolist epic made up of 44 short poems organized in three parts or Cycles:<ref>''Message'', Tr. by [[Jonathan Griffin]], Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2007.</ref>

The first, called "Brasão" (Coat-of-Arms), relates Portuguese historical protagonists to each of the fields and charges in the [[Coat of arms of Portugal|Portuguese coat of arms]]. The first two poems ("The castles" and "The escutcheons") draw inspiration from the material and spiritual natures of Portugal. Each of the remaining poems associates to each charge a historical personality. Ultimately they all lead to the [[Portuguese discoveries|Golden Age of Discovery]].

The second Part, called "Mar Português" (Portuguese Sea), references the country's Age of Portuguese Exploration and to [[Portuguese Empire|its seaborne Empire]] that ended with the death of [[Sebastian of Portugal|King Sebastian]] at [[Ksar el-Kebir|El-Ksar el Kebir]] (''Alcácer-Quibir'' in Portuguese) in 1578. Pessoa brings the reader to the present as if he had woken up from a dream of the past, to fall in a dream of the future: he sees King Sebastian returning and still bent on accomplishing a Universal Empire.

The third Cycle, called "O Encoberto" ("The Hidden One"), refers to Pessoa's vision of a future world of peace and the [[Fifth Empire]] (which, according to Pessoa, is spiritual and not material, because if it were material England would already have achieved it). After the Age of Force (Vis), and Taedium (Otium) will come Science (understanding) through a reawakening of "The Hidden One", or "King Sebastian". The Hidden One represents the fulfillment of the destiny of mankind, designed by God since before Time, and the accomplishment of Portugal.

King Sebastian is very important, indeed he appears in all three parts of Mensagem. He represents the capacity of dreaming, and believing that it's possible to achieve dreams.

One of the most famous quotes from ''Mensagem'' is the first line from ''O Infante'' (belonging to the second Part), which is ''Deus quer, o homem sonha, a obra nasce'' (which translates roughly to "God wishes, man dreams, the work is born"). Another well-known quote from ''Mensagem'' is the first line from ''Ulysses'', "O mito é o nada que é tudo" (a possible translation is "The myth is the nothing that is all"). This poem refers to [[Odysseus|Ulysses]], king of [[Ithaca (island)|Ithaca]], as Lisbon's founder (recalling an ancient Greek myth).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pessoa |first=Fernando |url=https://purl.pt/13966 |title=Mensagem |publisher=Parceria A.M. Pereira |year=1934 |location=Lisbon |access-date=22 December 2023}}</ref>

===Literary essays===
[[File:A Aguia.JPG|thumb|right|200px|''A Águia — Organ of the Portuguese Renaissance'' — issue nr. 4, April 1912.]]

In 1912, Fernando Pessoa wrote a set of essays (later collected as ''The New Portuguese Poetry'') for the cultural journal ''A Águia'' (The Eagle), founded in [[Porto|Oporto]], in December 1910, and run by the republican association Renascença Portuguesa.<ref>Martins, Fernando Cabral (coord.) (2008). ''Dicionário de Fernando Pessoa e do Modernismo Português''. Alfragide: Editorial Caminho.</ref> In the first years of the [[Portuguese Republic]], this cultural association was started by republican intellectuals led by the writer and poet [[Teixeira de Pascoaes]], philosopher Leonardo Coimbra and historian Jaime Cortesão, aiming for the renewal of Portuguese culture through the aesthetic movement called Saudosismo.{{Efn | The Portuguese Republic was founded by the revolution of 5 October 1910, giving freedom of association and publishing.}}  Pessoa contributed to the journal ''A Águia'' with a series of papers: 'The new Portuguese Poetry Sociologically Considered' (nr. 4), 'Relapsing...' (nr. 5) and 'The Psychological Aspect of the new Portuguese Poetry' (nrs. 9,11 and 12). These writings were strongly encomiastic to saudosist literature, namely the poetry of [[Teixeira de Pascoaes]] and [[Mário Beirão]]. The articles disclose Pessoa as a connoisseur of modern European literature and an expert of recent literary trends. On the other hand, he does not care much for a methodology of analysis or problems in the history of ideas. He states his confidence that Portugal would soon produce a great poet – a super-[[Camões]] – pledged to make an important contribution for European culture, and indeed, for humanity.<ref>Pessoa, Fernando (1993). ''Textos de Crítica e de Intervenção''. Lisboa: Edições Ática.</ref>

===Philosophical essays===
The philosophical notes of the young Pessoa, mostly written between 1905 and 1912, illustrate his debt to the history of [[philosophy]] more through commentators than through a first-hand protracted reading of the Classics, ancient or modern.<ref>{{citation | last = Zenith | first = Richard | year = 2021| title = Pessoa: A Biography | place = New York | publisher = Liveright Publishing Corporation | isbn =  9781324090779}}.</ref> The issues he engages with pertain to every philosophical discipline and concern a large profusion of concepts, creating a vast semantic spectrum in texts whose length varies between half a dozen lines and half a dozen pages and whose density of analysis is extremely variable; simple paraphrasis, expression of assumptions and original speculation.

Pessoa sorted the philosophical systems thus:
[[File:A Mensagem. Fernando Pessoa.jpg|thumb|300px|A passage from his famous poem "Mar Português" from ''Message'', in the city of [[Lagos, Portugal]].]]
# Relative Spiritualism and relative Materialism privilege "Spirit" or "Matter" as the main pole that organizes data around Experience.
# Absolute Spiritualist and Absolute Materialist "deny all objective reality to one of the elements of Experience".
# The materialistic [[Pantheism]] of [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]] and the spiritualizing Pantheism of [[Nicolas Malebranche|Malebranche]], "admit that experience is a double manifestation of any thing that in its essence has no matter neither spirit".
# Considering both elements as an "illusory manifestation", of a transcendent and true and alone realities, there is [[Transcendentalism]], inclined into matter with [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], or into spirit, a position where [[Henri Bergson|Bergson]] could be emplaced.
# A terminal system "the limited and summit of metaphysics" would not radicalize – as poles of experience – one of the single categories: matter, relative, absolute, real, illusory, spirit. Instead, matching all categories, it takes contradiction as "the essence of the universe" and defends that "an affirmation is so more true insofar the more contradiction involves". The transcendent must be conceived beyond categories. There ''is one only and eternal example of it. It is that cathedral of thought -the philosophy of [[Hegel]].''
Such [[pantheist]] [[transcendentalism]] is used by Pessoa to define the project that "encompasses and exceeds all systems"; to characterize the new poetry of '''Saudosismo''' where the "typical contradiction of this system" occurs; to inquire of the particular social and political results of its adoption as the leading cultural paradigm; and, at last, he hints that metaphysics and religiosity strive "to find in everything a beyond".

== Cultural references ==
Poetry by Fernando Pessoa appears in several films. For example, a quote from "Autopsychography" opens the Korean film ''The Cage'' (2017) by director [[Lior Shamriz]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ameblo.jp/popcherrysodacandy/entry-12664268507.html |title=『魅惑の貞操具「The Cage」』 |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Between False Realities |url=https://liorshamriz.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Between_False_Realities.pdf |website=liorshamriz.com |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref> The 1982 film ''[[Five and the Skin]]'' was based on Pessoa's ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]''.

The choral work "The Tower Bell in My Village" by [[Veljo Tormis]] (1978) is based on Pessoa's poetry. <ref>{{cite web |url=https://veljotormis.com/en/works/view/732/the-tower-bell-in-my-village/ |title=The Tower Bell in My Village |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://estonianmusic.com/en/toode/tornikell-minu-kulas-2/ |title=Tornikell minu külas / The Tower Bell in My Village |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

The novel ''[[Requiem: A Hallucination]]'' by [[Antonio Tabucchi]] (1991) features the ghost of an unnamed Portuguese writer widely understood to be Pessoa. <ref>{{cite web|author=Staff writer|date=1994-05-16|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8112-1270-0|title=Requiem: A Hallucination|work=Publishers Weekly|access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

The 2008 film ''The Night Fernando Pessoa Met Constantine Cavafy'', directed by Stelios Haralambopoulos, depicts a meeting between [[Constantine P. Cavafy]] and Pessoa aboard a transatlantic ship. <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/movie-tdf/movie/1153 |title=The Night Fernando Pessoa Met Constantine Cavafy |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

The 2024 film ''Cartas Telepáticas (Telepathic Letters)'', directed by [[Edgar Pêra]], explores affinities between Pessoa and [[H. P. Lovecraft]] and uses AI to generate fictional correspondence drawing on their writings. <ref>{{cite web |url=https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/465432/ |title=Review: Telepathic Letters |date=14 August 2024 |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

Nicolas Barral's 2024 comic book ''[[The Disquiet of Senhor Pessoa]]'' follows Pessoa's last days from the viewpoint of a journalist tasked with preparing his obituary in advance. <ref>{{cite news |last=Roure |first=Benjamin |date=21 January 2025 |url=https://www.bodoi.info/lintranquille-monsieur-pessoa/ |title=L'Intranquille Monsieur Pessoa |newspaper=BoDoï |language=fr |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

The Australian band [[Augie March]] set Pessoa's 1918 poem "This" to music on the track "This" from their album ''Malagrotta'' (2024). <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7w1kOMrH0&list=PLYTfiL8wNLmbrc8N5v1MKNxlH7cgrFt_t&index=12 |title=Augie March — "This" |access-date=2025-02-22}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''[http://purl.pt/13961 Antinous]: a poem'', Lisbon: Monteiro & Co., 1918 (16 p., 20&nbsp;cm). Portugal: PURL.
*''[[35 Sonnets]]'', Lisbon: Monteiro & Co., 1918 (20 pp., 20&nbsp;cm). Portugal: PURL.
*''[http://purl.pt/13967 English Poems]'', 2 vols. (vol. 1 part I – Antinous, part II – Inscriptions; vol. 2 part III – Epithalamium), Lisbon: Olisipo, 1921 (vol. 1, 20 pp.; vol. 2, 16 pp., 24&nbsp;cm). Portugal: PURL.
*''[[iarchive:selectedpoemsbyf00pess|Selected Poems]]'', tr. Edwin Honig, Swallow Press, 1971. ISBN B000XU4FE4
*''[[iarchive:selectedpoems0000pess/|Selected Poems]]'', tr. Peter Rickard, University of Texas Press, 1972
*''[[The Book of Disquiet]]'' (first published 1982; multiple translations and editions exist)
*{{citation | title = Always Astonished: Selected Prose | translator = Edwin Honig | place = San Francisco, USA | publisher = City Lights Books | year = 1988 | isbn = 978-0-87286-228-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XZYYXErWaB0C}}
*''Fernando Pessoa: Self-Analysis and Thirty Other Poems'', tr. George Monteiro, Gavea-Brown Publications, 1989. {{ISBN|0-943722-14-4}}
*''Message'', tr. Jonathan Griffin, introduction by Helder Macedo, Menard Press, 1992. {{ISBN|1-905700-27-X}}
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=8WVfAAAAMAAJ&q=anarchist+banker The Anarchist Banker and Other Portuguese Stories]''. Carcanet Press, 1996. {{ISBN|978-1-8575420-6-6}}
*''[[iarchive:keeperofsheepogu0000pess|The Keeper of Sheep]]'', bilingual edition, tr. Edwin Honig & Susan M. Brown, Sheep Meadow, 1997. {{ISBN|1-878818-45-7}}
*{{citation | title = Poems of Fernando Pessoa | translator1 = Edwin Honig | translator2 = Susan Brown | place = San Francisco, USA | publisher = City Lights Books | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-87286-342-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=klT3KN2V2JgC}}
*''[[iarchive:fernandopessoaco0000pess|Fernando Pessoa & Co: Selected Poems]]'', tr. Richard Zenith, Grove Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-8021-3627-3}}
*''Selected Poems: with New Supplement '' tr. Jonathan Griffin, Penguin Classics; 2nd edition, 2000. {{ISBN|0-14-118433-7}}
*{{citation | title = The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa | translator = Richard Zenith | place = New York, USA | publisher = Grove Press | year = 2001 | isbn = 978-0-8021-3914-6 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yrp9Fu168uYC}}
*''Sheep's Vigil by a Fervent Person: A Translation of Alberto Caeiro/Fernando Pessoa'', tr. Erin Moure, House of Anansi, 2001. {{ISBN|0-88784-660-2}}
*''The Education of the Stoic'', tr. Richard Zenith, afterwords by Antonio Tabucchi and Richard Zenith, Exact Change, 2005. {{ISBN|1-878972-40-5}}
*''A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems'', tr. Richard Zenith, Penguin Classics, 2006. {{ISBN|0-14-303955-5}}
*''A Centenary Pessoa'', tr. [[Keith Bosley]] & L. C. Taylor, foreword by Octavio Paz, Carcanet Press, 2006. {{ISBN|1-85754-724-1}}
*{{citation |title=Selected English Poems |place=Exeter, UK |publisher=Shearsman Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-905700-26-4 |url=https://www.shearsman.com/store/-p102839023 |access-date=28 July 2010 |df=dmy-all}}
*{{citation |title=The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro |translator=Chris Daniels |place=Exeter, UK |publisher=Shearsman Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-905700-24-0 |url=https://www.shearsman.com/store/-p102839024 |access-date=28 July 2010 |df=dmy-all}}
*{{citation | title = Lisbon: What the Tourist Should See | place = Exeter, UK | publisher = Shearsman Books | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-1-905700-25-7 | url = http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2008/pessoa_lisbon.html | access-date = 28 July 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110402025713/http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2008/pessoa_lisbon.html | archive-date = 2 April 2011 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}
*{{citation |title=Collected Later Poems of Álvaro de Campos, 1928–1935 |orig-year=1928–35 |translator=Chris Daniels |place=Exeter, UK |publisher=Shearsman Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-905700-25-7 |url=https://www.shearsman.com/store/-p102839025 |access-date=28 July 2010 |df=dmy-all}}
*{{citation | title = Forever Someone Else – selected poems – 2nd edition (enlarged) | orig-year = 2008 | translator = Richard Zenith | place = Lisbon, Portugal | publisher = Assírio & Alvim | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-972-37-1379-4 | url = http://www.assirio.pt/livros/ficha/forever-someone-else?id=11237521 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130114073341/http://www.assirio.pt/livros/ficha/forever-someone-else?id=11237521 | archive-date = 14 January 2013 | df = dmy-all }}
*{{citation | title = Histórias de um Raciocinador e o ensaio "História Policial" (Tales of a Reasoner and the essay "Detective Story") bilingual edition, translated from the original writings in English | author= Fernando Pessoa | display-authors = 0 | others = Ana Maria Freitas, edit & transl | place = Lisbon, Portugal | publisher = Assírio & Alvim | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-972-0-79312-6 | url = https://www.assirio.pt/produtos/ficha/historias-de-um-raciocinador-e-o-ensaio-historia-policial-/13029621 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130114073700/http://www.assirio.pt/livros/ficha/historias-de-um-raciocinador-e-o-ensaio-historia-policial-?id=13029621 | archive-date = 14 January 2013 | df = dmy-all }}
*''[http://issuu.com/contramundum/docs/cmp_pessoa_book_sample/ Philosophical Essays: A Critical Edition]''. Edited with notes and introduction by Nuno Ribeiro. New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-9836972-6-8}}
*''[http://issuu.com/contramundum/docs/cmp_pessoa_tb_book_sample__1_/ The Transformation Book — or Book of Tasks]''. Edited with notes and introduction by Nuno Ribeiro and Cláudia Souza. New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2014.
*''Un libro muy original | A Very Original Book'' [as Alexander Search]. Bilingual edition with notes by Natalia Jerez Quintero. Medellin: Tragaluz, 2014.
*''[https://www.ndbooks.com/author/fernando-pessoa/#the-complete-works-of-alberto-caeiro The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro]''. Edited by Jerónimo Pizarro and Patricio Ferrari, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari. New York City: New Directions, 2020.
*''Writings on Art & Poetical Theory'' (2022). Edited with notes and introduction by Nuno Ribeiro and Cláudia Souza. New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2022. Second edition published by Columbia University Press in 2025.
*''[https://www.ndbooks.com/author/fernando-pessoa/#the-complete-works-of-alvaro-de-campos The Complete Works of Álvaro de Campos]'', translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari. New York City: New Directions, 2023.
*''The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis'', translated by Margaret Jull Costa. New York City: New Directions, 2026.

==See also==
{{Portal|Portugal|Europe|Literature|Poetry|Biography}}
* [[Geração de Orpheu]]
* [[Heteronym (literature)|Heteronym]]
* [[Álvaro de Campos]]
* ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]''
* ''[[The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis]]''
* [[Portuguese poetry]]
* ''[[Dreams of Speaking]]''

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

===Books===
* Gray de Castro, Mariana, ed. ''Fernando Pessoa's Modernity Without Frontiers: Influences, Dialogues, Responses''. Vol. 320. Tamesis Books, 2013.
* Green, J. C. R. ''Fernando Pessoa: The Genesis of the Heteronyms''. Isle of Skye: Aquila, 1982.
* Jackson, Kenneth David. ''Adverse Genres in Fernando Pessoa''. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
* Jennings, Hubert D. and Carlos Pittella. ''Fernando Pessoa, the Poet with Many Faces: A biography and anthology''. Providence, RI: Gavea-Brown, 2018.
* Klobucka, Anna and Mark Sabine, (eds.). ''Embodying Pessoa: Corporeality, Gender, Sexuality''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
* Kotowicz, Zbigniew. ''Fernando Pessoa: Voices of a Nomadic Soul''. London: Menard, 1996.
* Lancastre, Maria José de and Antonio Tabucchi. ''Fernando Pessoa: Photographic Documentation and Caption.''Paris : Hazan, 1997.
* Lisboa, Eugénio and L. C. Taylor. ''A Centenary Pessoa''. Manchester, England: Carcanet, 1995.
* McGuirk, Bernard. ''Three Persons on One: A Centenary Tribute to Fernando Pessoa''. Nottingham, England: University of Nottingham, 1988.
* Monteiro, George. ''Fernando Pessoa and Nineteenth-century Anglo-American Literature''. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
* Monteiro, George. ''The Man Who Never Was: Essays on Fernando Pessoa''. Providence, RI: Gávea-Brown, 1982.
* Monteiro, George. ''The Presence of Pessoa: English, American, and Southern African Literary Responses''. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
* ''Pessoa's Alberto Caeiro''. Dartmouth, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2000.
* [[Maria Irene Ramalho|Santos, Maria Irene Ramalho Sousa]]. ''Atlantic Poets: Fernando Pessoa's Turn in Anglo-American Modernism''. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2003.
* Sadlier, Darlene J. ''An Introduction to Fernando Pessoa, Literary Modernist''. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1998.
* Terlinden-Villepin, Anne. ''Fernando Pessoa: The Bilingual Portuguese Poet''. Brussels: Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis, 1990.
* [[Richard Zenith|Zenith, Richard]]. ''[[Pessoa: A Biography]]''. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2021, {{ISBN|9781324090779}}. Also published as ''Pessoa: An Experimental Life''. London: Allen Lane, 2021.

===Articles===
* Anderson, R. N., "The Static Drama of Pessoa, Fernando", ''Hispanofila'' (104): 89–97 (January 1992).
* [[Harold Bloom|Bloom, Harold]], "Fernando Pessoa" in ''Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds''. New York: Warner Books, 2002.
* Brown, S. M., "The Whitman Pessoa Connection", ''Walt Whitman Quarterly Review'' 9 (1): 1–14 SUM 1991.
* Bunyan, D, "The South-African Pessoa: Fernando 20th Century Portuguese Poet", ''English in Africa'' 14 (1), May 1987, pp.&nbsp;67–105.
* Cruz, Anne J., "Masked Rhetoric: Contextuality in Fernando Pessoa's Poems", ''Romance Notes'', vol. XXIX, no. 1 (Fall, 1988), pp.&nbsp;55–60.
* De Castro, Mariana, [https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&u=googlescholar&id=GALE|A153241195&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=592ef5ac "Oscar Wilde, Fernando Pessoa, and the art of lying"], ''Portuguese Studies'' 22 (2): 219, 2006. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41105265 JSTOR]
* [[Geoff Dyer|Dyer, Geoff]], "Heteronyms", ''The New Statesman'', vol. 4 (6 December 1991), p.&nbsp;46.
* [[Fernanda Eberstadt|Eberstadt, Fernanda]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/01/books/proud-of-his-obscurity.html "Proud of His Obscurity"], ''The New York Times Book Review'', vol. 96, (1 September 1991), p.&nbsp;26.
* Ferrari, Patricio. "Proverbs in Fernando Pessoa's works", ''Proverbium'', vol. 31, pp.&nbsp;235–244.
* Ferreira, Oscar, "Un défenseur ésotérique de la dictature militaire : Fernando Pessoa", ''Revue Française d'Histoire des Idées Politiques,'' 59(1), p. 113-168 (https://doi.org/10.3917/rfhip1.059.0113).
* Guyer, Leland, "Fernando Pessoa and the Cubist Perspective", ''Hispania'', vol. 70, no. 1 (March 1987), pp.&nbsp;73–78.
* Haberly, David T., "Fernando Pessoa: Overview" in Lesley Henderson (ed.), ''Reference Guide to World Literature'', 2nd ed. St. James Press, 1995.
* Hicks, J., "The Fascist imaginary in Pessoa and Pirandello", ''Centennial Review'' 42 (2): 309–332 SPR 1998.
* Hollander, John, "Quadrophenia", ''The New Republic'', 7 September 1987, pp.&nbsp;33–6.
* Howes, R. W., "Pessoa, Fernando, Poet, Publisher, and Translator", ''British Library Journal'' 9 (2): 161–170 1983.
* Jennings, Hubert D., [https://web.archive.org/web/20100806133733/http://www.umfernandopessoa.com/estudos/in-search-of-fernando-pessoa.pdf "In Search of Fernando Pessoa"] ''Contrast 47 – South African Quarterly'', vol. 12 no. 3 (June 1979).
* Lopes J. M., "Cubism and intersectionism in Fernando Pessoa's 'Chuva Obliqua", ''Texte'' (15–16),1994, pp.&nbsp; 63–95.
* Mahr, G., "Pessoa, life narrative, and the dissociative process" in ''Biography'' 21 (1) Winter 1998, pp.&nbsp;25–35.
* McNeill, Pods, "The aesthetic of fragmentation and the use of personae in the poetry of Fernando Pessoa and [[W. B. Yeats]]", ''Portuguese Studies'' 19: 110–121 2003.
* Monteiro, George, "The Song of the Reaper-Pessoa and [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]]", ''Portuguese Studies'' 5, 1989, pp.&nbsp;71–80.
* Muldoon P., "In the hall of mirrors: 'Autopsychography' by Fernando Pessoa", ''New England Review'' 23 (4), Fall 2002, pp.&nbsp;38–52.
* Pasi, Marco, [https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/pessoaplural/Issue1/PDF/I1A07.pdf "September 1930, Lisbon: Aleister Crowley’s lost diary of his Portuguese trip"] ''Pessoa Plural'', no. 1 (Spring 2012), pp.&nbsp;253–283.
* Pasi, Marco & Ferrari, Patricio, [https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/pessoaplural/Issue1/PDF/I1A08.pdf "Fernando Pessoa and Aleister Crowley: New discoveries and a new analysis of the documents in the Gerald Yorke Collection"], ''Pessoa Plural'', no. 1 (Spring 2012), pp.&nbsp;284–313.
* Phillips, A., "Pessoa's Appearances" in ''Promises, Promises'', London: Faber and Faber Limited, 2000, pp.&nbsp;113–124.
* Polito, Robert, [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/fernando-pessoa/ "Fernando Pessoa"] ''Bomb Magazine'', Issue #65, 1 October 1998.
* Ribeiro, A. S., "A tradition of empire: Fernando Pessoa and Germany", ''Portuguese Studies'' 21: 201–209, 2005
* Riccardi, Mattia, "Dionysus or Apollo? The heteronym Antonio Mora as moment of Nietzsche's reception by Pessoa", ''Portuguese Studies'' 23 (1), 109, 2007.
* Rosenthal, David H., "Unpredictable Passions", ''The New York Times Book Review'', 13 December 1987, p.&nbsp;32.
* Seabra, J.A., "Pessoa, Fernando Portuguese Modernist Poet", ''Europe'' 62 (660): 41–53 1984.
* Severino, Alexandrino E., "Fernando Pessoa's Legacy: The Presença and After", ''World Literature Today'', vol. 53, no. 1 (Winter, 1979), pp.&nbsp;5–9.
* Severino, Alexandrino E., "Pessoa, Fernando – A Modern Lusiad", ''Hispania'' 67 (1): 52–60 1984.
* Severino, Alexandrino E., [http://213.0.4.19/servlet/SirveObras/01475176655936417554480/p0000006.htm#I_9_ "Was Pessoa Ever in South Africa?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114073339/http://213.0.4.19/servlet/SirveObras/01475176655936417554480/p0000006.htm#I_9_ |date=14 January 2013 }} [http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/hispania--11/ ''Hispania''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217041138/http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/hispania--11/ |date=17 February 2020 }}, vol. 74, no. 3 (September 1991).
* Sheets, Jane M., "Fernando Pessoa as Anti-Poet: Alberto Caeiro", ''Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'', vol. XLVI, no. 1 (January 1969), pp.&nbsp;39–47.
* Simon, Ed, [https://daily.jstor.org/the-poet-is-a-man-who-feigns/ "The Poet Is a Man Who Feigns"] ''JSTOR Daily'', September 20, 2023.
* Sousa, Ronald W., "The Structure of Pessoa's Mensagem", ''Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'', vol. LIX, no. 1, January 1982, pp.&nbsp;58–66.
* [[George Steiner|Steiner, George]], [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jun/03/poetry.features1 "A man of many parts"], ''The Observer'', 3 June 2001.
* Suarez, Jose, "Fernando Pessoa's acknowledged involvement with the occult", ''Hispania 90'' (2): (May 2007), 245–252.
* Wood, Michael, [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1972/09/21/mod-and-great/ "Mod and Great"] ''The New York Review of Books'', vol. XIX, no. 4 (21 September 1972), pp.&nbsp;19–22.
* Wood, Michael, [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1991/10/24/the-sorcerers-apprentice/ "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"] ''The New York Review of Books'' (24 October 1991).
* Zenith, Richard, "Pessoa, Fernando and the Theater of his Self", ''Performing Arts Journal'' (44), May 1993, pp.&nbsp;47–49.

===Videos===

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3nAm-qdZJs Professor David Jackson: Adverse Genres in Fernando Pessoa] 10:20. Yale University, 11/12/2009. 
Professor Jacksons research interests focus on Portuguese and Brazilian Literatures; modernist and inter-arts literature; Portuguese culture in Asia; and ethnomusicology.  He has written and edited several books and other publications. We talk with Professor Jackson about his forthcoming book, Adverse Genres in Fernando Pessoa.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GCMR3oCXBc PESSOA & OTHER POETS IN THE PORTUGUESE: An Evening with Translator Richard Zenith] 1:35:17. 
18 November 2013, at the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University.<br />
As a part of our Omniglot Seminar series, Portuguese translator Richard Zenith read from his translations of Luís de Camões, Fernando Pessoa and Carlos Drummond de Andrade. He compared his experiences translating archaic vs. contemporary linguistic registers, highly formal poetry vs. free verse, and European vs. Brazilian Portuguese. And he discussed the unique challenge of translating (and researching a biography of) a poet such as Pessoa, with alter egos that wrote in radically different styles.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UTgrf7cU0A Fernando Pessoa: An Englishly Portuguese, Endlessly Multiple Poet] 1:04:12. Library of Congress, 22/04/2015.
Richard Zenith presented a lecture on Fernando Pessoa, one of Portugal's most important literary figures of the 20th century and a towering figure in modernism.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO3IsHXlrW8 I Don't know How Many Souls I Have - Fernando Pessoa] 02:16. WisdoMango, 15/11/2020.
In this poem, Pessoa creates an inner struggle that the speaker has with trying to figure out whether it was fate or free will that has determined how his life panned out. By making the whole poem essentially one, elongated metaphor, Pessoa is able to give multiple interpretations to his poem. In the titular first line of the first stanza, Pessoa states "I don’t know how many souls I have". Automatically, Pessoa causes the speaker to question his morality and inner being. Line two of the first stanza has a literal translation of "each time changed." When put in context, it becomes apparent that the speaker is referring to himself that changes so often. These two lines become the foundation for the rest of the poem, seeing as they set up a questioning within the speaker. The translations of these two lines are also crucial to fully grasp the meaning of the poem as a whole.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubwdg9ZAcAQ Fine Poetry - Poems of Fernando Pessoa] 15:46. Richard Eggenberger, 31/01/2018.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPKqsBciaAk "Pop" by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Richard Zenith] 01:14. Poem read by David Novak, 07/01/2021.

==External links==
{{Sister project links|author=yes|b=no|d=y|n=no|s=Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa|v=no|wikt=no}}

* [http://casafernandopessoa.pt/en/cfp/house Pessoa's Museum in Lisbon] Fernando Pessoa House
* [http://bibliotecaparticular.casafernandopessoa.pt/index/index.htm Pessoa's private library] free downloads from the digital library at Pessoa's Museum
* [http://www.pessoadigital.pt/en/index.html Digital Edition of Fernando Pessoa] and heteronyms
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110117041722/http://www.historia.com.pt/Mensagem/english.htm ''Message''] the only Portuguese book by Fernando Pessoa published during his lifetime
* [http://purl.pt/index/geral/aut/PT/10380.html Works by Fernando Pessoa at the Portuguese Digital Library]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Fernando Pessoa}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=9005}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/fernando-pessoa/poetry| noitalics=true}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1698}}
* [https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/pessoaplural/ ''Pessoa Plural: Revista de Estudos Pessoanos – A Journal of Fernando Pessoa Studies''] 
* [http://estranharpessoa.com/projectdescription/ Project Estranhar Pessoa] 
* [http://purl.pt/13961/ ''Antinous''] free download from the Portuguese Digital Library
* [http://purl.pt/13963/ ''35 Sonnets''] free download from the Portuguese Digital Library
* [http://purl.pt/13967/ ''English Poems''] free download from the Portuguese Digital Library
* [http://purl.pt/13966/ ''Mensagem''] free download from the Portuguese Digital Library
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/arts/design/15abroad.html?pagewanted=all "Portugal Holds on to Words Few Can Grasp"] by Michael Kimmelman, ''The New York Times'', 15 July 2008
* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/752 Poets.org Biography]
* [http://disquiet.com/pessoa.html Pessoa's trunk] 13+ ways of looking at a poem
* [https://avadhimag.in/ಪೋರ್ಚುಗೀಸ್-ಕವಿ-ಫನಾಂಡೊಪೆಸ/ Kannada translation of 4 poems by Fernando Pessoa - Translated by S. Jayasrinivasa Rao - published in avadhimag.in]
* [https://kuvempubhashabharathi.karnataka.gov.in/storage/pdf-files/Triannual%20Journal/KBB%20Magazine%20-4.pdf Kannada translation of 4 more poems by Fernando Pessoa - Translated by S. Jayasrinivasa Rao - published in Bhasha Bharathi: A Peer-Reviewed Kannada Triannual Journal, Vol. 4, September-December 2021. Pp. 86-94]
* [http://arquivopessoa.net/ Arquivo Pessoa]
* [http://www.aldouseveleigh.com/aldouss-gallery/pessoa-ngg/ Pessoa by Eveleigh] The many faces of Fernando Pessoa by Aldous Eveleigh
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hqS_4ZM8nM 35 English Sonnets by Fernando Pessoa (audio)]

{{Fernando Pessoa}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pessoa, Fernando}}
[[Category:Fernando Pessoa| ]]
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[[Category:Modern pagan philosophers]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
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