Countless lives inhabit us

Countless lives inhabit us.
I donʾt know, when I think or feel,
Who is thinking or feeling.
I am merely the place
Where things are thought or felt.

I have more than just one soul.
There are more Iʾs than I myself.
I exist, nevertheless,
Indifferent to them all.
I silence them: I speak.

The crossing urges of what
I feel or do not feel
Struggle in who I am, but I
Ignore them. They dictate nothing
To the I I know: I write.

13-XI-1935

PESSOA, Fernando, Forever Someone Else: selected poems, translated by Richard Zenith. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2013, p. 133