Follow your destiny

Follow your destiny
Water your plants,
Love your roses.
The rest is shadows
Of unknown trees.

Reality is always
More or less
Than what we want.
Only we are always
Equal to ourselves.

Itʾs good to live alone,
And noble and great
Always to live simply.
Leave pain on the altar
As an offering to the gods.

See life from a distance.
Never question it.
Thereʾs nothing it can
Tell you. The answer
Lies beyond the Gods.

But quietly imitate
Olympus in your heart.
The gods are gods
Because they donʾt think
About what they are.

1-VII-1916

PESSOA, Fernando, Forever Someone Else: selected poems, translated by Richard Zenith. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2013, p. 93