“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.
Shot through the heart – yes, he describes this perfectly: ‘If I write what I feel it’s to reduce the fever of feeling.’
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.
I’ll be reading it as the Portugal entry for my #EU27Project – can’t wait!
Beautiful. I love Pessoa.
Yes, me too. As does Antonio Tabucchi, which brought me back to reading Pessoa.
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.