After 13 months, I can finally say I have finished reading Pessoa: A Biography by Richard Zenith, the 900-plus page book dedicated to quite possibly Portugal’s greatest writer.
The last hundred or so pages were read in a flash. As he reached the final years of his life, Pessoa was thrust into the sociopolitical elements of Portuguese society and Antonio Salazar. The book, as Pessoa’s life, reaches its end before the beginning of the Second World War.
The conclusion is a rich pay-off to the thousands of words that came before it. I spent many hours reading the history of Portugal, South Africa, American and British writers, Alestair Crowley, occultism, the study of modernism and naval adventures. All of these shaped Pessoa’s world.
And Pessoa would shape the world that he would depart, a world in which he chose to live as non-famously as possible. Who was this great poet that no one heard of?
I’ve already picked up one book of poetry (Verlaine), because of how it shaped Pessoa. And now I am in search of another, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, written by the illustrious Jose Saramago who was in no doubt inspired by Pessoa.
In all my readings I cannot find a writer whose style was more labrynthine or expansive. And yet his final written words could not be more laconic: “I know not what tomorrow will bring.”
I closed my book wanting to dive immediately back into The Book of Disquiet. Or should I read Saramago?
I instead turn to my shelf of neglected books and pick up M Train by Patti Smith, which she described as a “road map” to her life. It feels like a natural book to follow Pessoa. I’ve read Smith before (Just Kids) and understand how heavily inspired she was by poets who came before her (particularly the Romantic poets like Rimbaud and Verlaine).
And so I am currently devouring this book which name drops Frida Kahlo, Sylvia Plath, Haruki Murakami - too many notable figures to count.
And, of course, she listed The Book of Disquiet as one of her all-time favourite books. He was apparently given a mention in her book Year of the Monkey, in which she recounted visiting Pessoa’s personal library in Lisbon.
The above video is Patti Smith reading Salutation to Walt Whitman by Alvaro de Campos, a Pessoa heteronym heavily inspired by the American transcendentalist. Few writers were credited as inspiring Pessoa so much as Whitman, whose style and personality was so anti-Pessoan.
Unlike Pessoa, Whitman was full of life and expression. And we see this in Campos, whose life and work was far different from that of the withdrawn Pessoa.
Whitman, Rimbaud Verlaine, Shakespeare, Byron and Wilde. All significant influences on the works of Portugal’s greatest writer.
Rimbaud, Verlaine, Wilde, Camus and Genet. All significant influences on one of America’s most alluring song-writers.
As I chart the road map to Patti Smith’s life, I find myself at the strangest of intersections in which we both encountered Pessoa, Campos, Caeiro, Reis, Soares, Mora and Guedes.
Fitzie’s track of the day: The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, by Roberta Flack
And now for your links:
Jack P-B ($$): “Tottenham can still salvage this season - here are three compelling reasons why”
Football London: “Yang Min-hyeok sub decision explained, Alfie Dorrington loan frustration and Luka Vuskovic goal”