Fernando Pessoa in English

Sunday 11 December 2011


Fernando Pessoa is one of the most important figures in Portuguese literature; however, what many people don’t know is that he wrote a lot in English. That’s right, I discovered it when I was searching information for an oral presentation about him. I thought that it would be a good idea to look for some of his poems and post them on this blog. So one of my favorite is about our Alentejo, although it is written in English (you can read it below).
Fernando Pessoa was fluent in English because he grew up in South Africa, were we was brought up according to the english customs. He ended up so far from his hometown Lisbon, when his mother married another man, who wasn’t Fernando’s father.


ALENTEJO SEEN FROM THE TRAIN

Nothing with nothing around it
And a few trees in between
None of which very clearly green,
Where no river or flower pays a visit.

If there be a hell, I've found it,





Inês Ribas Dias

1 comentários:

Teacher Lígia Silva said...

My dear Inês
thanks a lot for the post. I inserted some photos but feel free to remove them if you don't like them or think that I have no right to interfere with tour post.
I also love this poem and Alentejo is my favourite region of Portugal.
prof. Lígia Silva