Freedom

“All manner of orations and histories, on shelves reaching up to the ceiling, adorn the home of the lazy man. — Seneca”

Ah, what a pleasure
To leave a task undone,
To have a book to read
And not even crack it!
Reading is a bore,
And studying isnʾt anything.
The sun shines golden
Without any literature.
The river flows, fast or slow,
Without a first edition.
And the breeze, belonging
So naturally to morning,
Has time, itʾs in no hurry.

Books are just paper painted with ink.
And to study is to distinguish, indistinctly,
Between nothing and not a thing.

How much better, when itʾs foggy,
To wait for King Sebastian,
Whether or not he ever shows!

Poetry, dancing and charity are great things,
But whatʾs best in the world are children, flowers,
Music, moonlight and the sun, which only sins
When it withers instead of making things grow.

Greater than this
Is Jesus Christ,
Who knew nothing of finances
And had no library, as far as we know…

16 March 1935

PESSOA, Fernando, Forever Someone Else: selected poems, translated by Richard Zenith. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2013, pp. 289-291