The Book of Disquiet (78 page)

certain madmen
: ‘systematized lunatics’ (alternate version)

431
[1/47, typed]

432
[3/43, ms.]

433
[2/29, typed] Dated 7 April 1933.

434
[4/35, typed]

435
[1/27, typed]

436
[1/38–40, mixed]

painful to my heart
: ‘painful to my consciousness’ (alternate version)
to life as to an enormous yoke
: ‘to life, to the abstract yoke of God’/‘to life, stretching it across the window as across a guillotine’ (alternate versions)

437
[2/18, typed] Dated 29 August 1933.

438
†[94/16, ms.]

439
[1/29, ms.]

440
[3/28, typed]

441
[2/19, typed] 8 September 1933.

442
[2/71, typed]

443
[5/8a, ms.]

444
[2/34, ms.]

445
[4/53, typed] 18 September 1933.

446
[1/5, typed] This and the next two passages were found in the large envelope where Pessoa placed material for
The Book of Disquiet
, but they undoubtedly belonged to his projected essay on Omar Khayyám, for which various other passages were written. Perhaps Pessoa, giving up on the fragmentary essay, decided to include parts of it in
The Book of Disquiet
.

Tarde
: See note for Text
238
.

Dean Aldrich
: Henry Aldrich (1647–1710), the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, was a humanist of many vocations, from theology to architecture. Pessoa did not record Aldrich’s epigram, ‘Reasons for Drinking’, on the manuscript copy of this passage about Khayyám, but he evidently meant to fill in the blank space later with his own translation of the verses into Portuguese, found elsewhere among the thousands of papers he left.
it was a Greek
: Glykon.

447
[1/4, mixed] The following epithet appears at the end of the passage:
The Persian poet, Master of disconsolation and disillusion
.

448
[1/2, typed]

449
[4/52, typed] Dated 2 November 1933.

450
[1/49, typed]

almost human sound
: ‘harsh and humble sound’ (alternate version)

451
[2/51, typed]

‘Any road, this simple Entepfuhl road… World’
: From Thomas Carlyle, cf. Text 138.

452
[2/52, typed]

453
†[9/41, ms.]

454
[1/85, typed]

in the news
: ‘in progress’ (alternate version)

455
[4/55, ms.] Dated 23 December 1933.

456
[4/56–7, ms.] Dated 31 March 1934.

457
[7/3, ms.]

458
[2/11, typed]

Praça da Figueira
: One of Lisbon’s downtown squares, which in Pessoa’s day was taken up by a public market.

459
[2/2, ms.]

460
[2/47, typed]

461
[5/59, ms.]

462
[5/10, typed]

463
[7/39, typed] Dated 5 June 1934.

464
[6/16, typed]

Poe’s Egaeus
: From the short story ‘Berenice’.

465
[6/15, typed] Dated 9 June 1934.

466
[5/35, ms.]

467
[28/26, ms.]

468
[5/12, typed] Dated 19 June 1934.

Peter Schlemihl
: The protagonist of
Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte
, published in 1814 by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838).

469
[9/11, ms.]

470
[144Y/52, ms.]

471
[5/33, typed] Dated 21 June 1934.

472
[7/49, ms.] Dated 29 June 1934.

epopt
: An initiate in the highest order of the Eleusinian mysteries.

473
[7/50, ms.] Dated 26 July 1934.

474
[112/9, ms.]

475
[133G/30, ms.]

Amiel
: See note for Text
72
.

476
[5/69, ms.]

477
[3/8, ms.]

478
[1/26, ms.] The parenthetical heading is in English in the original.

479
[2/31, ms.]

480
[1/78, ms.]

481
[6/17, typed]

A Disquiet Anthology

A
DVICE TO
U
NHAPPILY
M
ARRIED
W
OMEN
(I) [5/65, ms.]

Cesare Borgia
: Cited by Machiavelli as a prime example of the modern ‘prince’, Cesare (
c.
1475–1507) was one of the most notorious members of the politically ruthless Borgia clan.

A
DVICE TO
U
NHAPPILY
M
ARRIED
W
OMEN
(II) [5/8a, ms.]

A
DVICE TO
U
NHAPPILY
M
ARRIED
W
OMEN
(III) [114
¹
/97, ms.] No title appears on the manuscript, but Pessoa almost certainly had his ‘Advice’ to unhappy wives in mind.

A
POCALYPTIC
F
EELING
[7/23–7, ms.]

T
HE
A
RT OF
E
FFECTIVE
D
REAMING
(I) [15B
¹
/96, ms.]

T
HE
A
RT OF
E
FFECTIVE
D
REAMING
(II) [5/5, ms.]

you can leave for tomorrow
: ‘you can likewise not do tomorrow’ (alternate version)

T
HE
A
RT OF
E
FFECTIVE
D
REAMING
(III) [9/23a, ms.]

T
HE
A
RT OF
E
FFECTIVE
D
REAMING FOR
M
ETAPHYSICAL
M
INDS
[144D
²
/46–50, ms.]

I’m a character of
: ‘I’m bits of characters from’ (alternate version) C
ASCADE
[5/6, ms.]

when life is negated
: ‘when love is negated’ (alternate version)

C
ENOTAPH
[5/15–16, typed] The sixth paragraph is followed by two incomplete phrases, which Pessoa presumably thought of incorporating into a revised version of this text:

– of simple heroism, with no heaven to win through martyrdom, nor humanity to save through struggle; of the old pagan race that belongs to the City and outside of which all are barbarians and enemies.

– but with the emotion of the son who loves his mother because she is his mother and not because he is her son.

D
ECLARATION OF
D
IFFERENCE
[5/56, typed]

D
IVINE
E
NVY
[4/65–6, ms.]

Cais do Sodré
: See note for Text
16
.

F
UNERAL
M
ARCH
†[138A/33–4, ms.]

F
UNERAL
M
ARCH FOR
L
UDWIG
II, K
ING OF
B
AVARIA
[4/59–63, 138A/56, ms.] The following phrases, which Pessoa perhaps meant to incorporate into a revised version of this text (along with several other fragmentary passages that have turned up in his archives), appear at the end of the manuscript copy:

… and in the background Death…

Your coming glows in the sunset, in the regions where Death reigns.

They have crowned you with mysterious flowers of unknown colours, an absurd garland worthy of a deposed god.

… your purple devotion to dreaming, splendour of Death’s antechamber.

… impossible hetairas of the abyss…

Sound your horns, heralds, from the tops of the battlements, in salute of this great dawn! The King of Death is about to enter his domain!

Flowers from the abyss, black roses, moon-white carnations, radiant red poppies.

Ludwig II, King of Bavaria
: This whimsical German monarch was born in 1845, came to the throne in 1864, and died in 1886, on 13 June, exactly two years before Pessoa was born. A fervent admirer and supporter of Richard Wagner, Ludwig had little interest in government affairs but preferred to spend his time and the state’s money building mock-Gothic castles and sponsoring lavish performances of plays, concerts and operas for his own private enjoyment. His exasperated ministers finally declared him mentally unfit to rule and sent him to his castle-turned-asylum at Berg, where the next day his drowned corpse was found in Lake Starnberg, but whether he committed suicide or was the victim of foul play remains a mystery. This would perhaps please the so-called Dream King, who once wrote: ‘I want to remain an eternal enigma, both to myself and to others.’

catalfalques of heroes
: ‘catafalques of suicides’ (alternate version)

I
MPERIAL
L
EGEND
[5/75, ms.]

restless mystery
: ‘congenital mystery’ (alternate version)

my self-awareness
: ‘my soul’ (alternate version)

I
N THE
F
OREST OF
E
STRANGEMENT
Published in
A Águia
, July–December 1913, as a passage from
The Book of Disquiet
and signed by Fernando Pessoa. The whereabouts of the original manuscript is unknown.

T
HE
L
AKE OF
P
OSSESSION
(I) [9/47, ms.]

T
HE
L
AKE OF
P
OSSESSION
(II) [5/5, ms.]

Property isn’t a theft: it’s nothing
: This statement refutes, or relativizes, the notion of Proudhon. But in a note written in English [15
⁴
/15], Pessoa agreed with the author of
Qu’est-ce que la propriété?
: ‘The true word on the case was first spoken by Proudhon. “Property,” he said, “is a theft.” And the words were truer than he himself believed, for property, in truth, is a theft and had its origin in robbery.’

A L
ETTER
(I) [4/74, 5/9, ms.]

A L
ETTER
(II)† [114
¹
/75, ms.]

L
UCID
D
IARY
[5/17, typed]

by the gods
: ‘by the angels’ (alternate version)

T
HE
M
AJOR
[9/5, ms.] Dated 8 October 1919.

M
AXIMS
[7/32–3, ms.]

M
ILKY
W
AY
[7/37, 7/35–6, typed]

rites from the time of no one
: ‘rites contemporaneous to no one’s understanding’ (alternate version)

long-drawn-out epitaph
: ‘Gongoristic epitaph’ (alternate version)

M
ILLIMETRES
[9/49, typed]

O
UR
L
ADY OF
S
ILENCE
[4/75–7, 9/28, 94/80, 4/78–9, 4/73, 4/72, ms.]

so loathsomely born?
: ‘so loathsomely expelled into the world?/into the light?’ (alternate versions)

Votary of nonsense phrases
: ‘Votary of sexless phrases’ (alternate version)

P
EDRO
’
S
P
ASTORAL
[8/8, ms.] Alternate title in the manuscript:
Pedro’s Eclogue
.

a bird alighted
: ‘the idea of a bird alighted’ (alternate version)

P
ERISTYLE
[9/39, 31, 32, 40, ms.]

like the open doors of an abandoned house
: ‘like open gates at the end of a tree-lined drive’ (alternate version)

my life in you
: ‘your life in me’ (alternate version)

than this dead life
: ‘than this very life’ (alternate version)

R
ANDOM
D
IARY
[5/68, ms.]

T
HE
R
IVER OF
P
OSSESSION
[5/70–72, ms.]

our true nature
: ‘our true humanity’/‘our maturity’ (alternate versions)

Platonic
: ‘spiritualist’ (alternate version)

garden of Estrela
: A large public garden in Lisbon.

S
ELF
-E
XAMINATION
[94/88, 88a, ms.]

Amiel
: See note for Text
72
.

T
HE
S
ENSATIONIST
[144D
²
/82–4, ms.]

‘on le fatigait en l’aimant’
: From Chateaubriand. See Text
235
.

S
ENTIMENTAL
E
DUCATION
[5/53–4, typed]

S
YMPHONY OF THE
R
ESTLESS
N
IGHT
[94/3, mixed]

argonauts
: See note for Text
124
.

T
HE
V
ISUAL
L
OVER
(I) [7/45–7, ms.]