“What is there to confess that’s worthwhile or useful? What has happened to us has happened to everyone or only to us; if to everyone, then it’s no novelty, and if only to us, then it won’t be understood. If I write what I feel it’s to reduce the fever of feeling. What I confess is unimportant because everything is unimportant.”
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, (trans. Richard Zenith). Penguin, 2002.
Time's Flow Stemmed 
Shot through the heart – yes, he describes this perfectly: ‘If I write what I feel it’s to reduce the fever of feeling.’
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This sort of brilliance is typical with Pessoa. I’m rereading this book as Antonio Tabucchi is so enamoured by Pessoa, but it’s been at least fifteen years since I read The Book of Disquiet, and it hits so much harder now.
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I’ll be reading it as the Portugal entry for my #EU27Project – can’t wait!
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Beautiful. I love Pessoa.
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Yes, me too. As does Antonio Tabucchi, which brought me back to reading Pessoa.
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I love the quotes you are posting from this.
This I have often thought re writing both memoirs and fiction: ‘What has happened to us has happened to everyone or only to us; if to everyone, then it’s no novelty, and if only to us, then it won’t be understood.
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