Today FERNANDO PESSOA (1888-1935) would be celebrating his 119th anniversary. He was one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, unique in the diversity of personalities and perceptions of the world he was able to attribute to his several heteronyms. Depending on my own moods my Pessoa’s heteronym of choice truly changes.There was Alberto Caeiro, his first heteronym, who took things for what they were, without dwelling into metaphysics. For Caeiro things were what they seemed, without hidden means. This enabled him to be free of anxiety, to be happy by limiting his horizons o avoid doubts and uncertainties. He was Pessoa’s primal vision of reality. He wrote spontaneously with great cheerfulness.
Then there was Ricardo Reis, who also avoided questioning life, his message was the type of “seize the day and accept fate with serenity”. He would say that the seeker will find the abyss in everything and doubt in himself. In this sense there are similarities with Caeiro, though Reis believed that true happiness could never be attained. He believed in Fate and could never have freedom, only self-control in seeking tranquility by avoiding emotional extremes. He wrote in a very austere, structured way, in constant rationalization.
Álvaro Campos was very intense and varied, he believed that one should “feel everything in every way”. He always balanced between two impulses: strong desire to be and feel everything and everyone, and a wish to be isolated and feel nothingness. As a result his mood and principles swung between violent exultation of meaning of life and nostalgic melancholy of an empty life. Since he was this very dichotomous character, he failed to achieve an ideal identity, he did not know who he was, and despaired about it. While Caeiro asked nothing of life, Campos asked too much.
Then there is Fernando Pessoa himself, who does not really translate Fernando Pessoa the poet, but only aspects of the poet. He was the most intellectual and analytic poetic persona, distressed by acutute identity crises, indecisive and doubt plagued, melancholic, weary and resigned, always with a great sense of loss. Fernando Pessoa his best portrayed by the sum of his heteronyms. Someone said that Reis believed in Form, Campos in Sensation, Pessoa in Symbols, and Caeiro believed in Nothing, he simply existed.
