This By Fernando Pessoa
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They say I lie or feign
In all I write. Not true.
It’s simply that I feel
Via the imagination.
The heart I never use.
All I dream or live,
Whatever fails or dies,
Is no more than a covering
Over some other thing
Where true beauty lies.
That’s why I base my writings
On things that are remote
Freed from my reality,
Serious about what isn’t.
Feel? That’s up to the reader!
From “Fernando Pessoa & Co.,” edited and translated by Richard Zenith (Grove Press: 290 pp., $25)
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