Nice one.

This simple phrase holds a world of meaning. It can be used to express approval, admiration, or just a general sense of satisfaction.

When someone says "nice one," it can make the recipient feel good about themselves and their actions. It's a small but powerful gesture that can brighten someone's day.

We should all strive to use this phrase more often. Whether it's to compliment a friend on a job well done, or to show appreciation for a kind gesture, "nice one" is a great way to spread positivity and kindness.

So the next time you see someone doing something great, don't be afraid to say "nice one." You might be surprised at how much of a difference it can make.

Let's make "nice one" a part of our daily vocabulary and start making the world a better place, one kind word at a time.

This book will seem interesting to those who are lovers of Pessoa's entire work and want a more general picture of his personality. It is about the correspondence he had with Ofélia during the time periods when they corresponded with the intervening void between them. One could say that these letters clarify for us that Pessoa was incapable of loving anyone beyond his literary work, to which he essentially dedicated his life. However, this would be arbitrary from the point of view that one really cannot know who this enigmatic artist really was. Each one is free to have his own opinion.

It is important to note that Pessoa's relationship with Ofélia was complex and multifaceted. Their correspondence reveals not only his inability to love in a traditional sense but also his inner turmoil and conflict.

The letters also provide insights into Pessoa's creative process and the role that his relationships played in his work.

Overall, this book offers a unique perspective on Pessoa's life and work and is a must-read for anyone interested in this fascinating writer.

A collection of letters that is undoubtedly interesting for both enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts of Fernando Pessoa. It is yet another means to catch a glimpse into the multiverse of the poet and the person.

Moreover, the topics are exhaustively analyzed in the afterword by Antonio Tabucchi. This epistolary collection offers a unique perspective on Pessoa's life and work.

Readers can explore the thoughts, emotions, and ideas that Pessoa expressed through his letters. It provides an opportunity to understand his creative process and the various influences that shaped his writing.

The analysis in the postfazione by Tabucchi further enriches the reading experience, offering valuable insights and interpretations. Overall, this collection is a must-read for anyone interested in Fernando Pessoa and his literary legacy.

\\"This is not a letter, it is a messy house.\\"

Ofélia Queiroz, letter dated 22-11-1929 addressed to Fernando Pessoa

***

\\"This is not a letter, it is a messy house.\\"

Ofélia Queiroz, letter dated 22-11-1929 addressed to Fernando Pessoa

***

Some years ago, I discovered the schemes created by Pessoa that allowed him to spend more time traveling with Ofélia Queiroz. At that time, I formed an idealized image of what their courtship must have been like. I knew there were reservations that were preventing the celebration of marriage (issues of material means), but the reading of this book uncovered layers that I could not have guessed. Ofélia Queiroz was, as revealed by her letters, a passionate, intense, affectionate, and patient woman. Her desires are explicit and, at times, expressed in an almost insistent way: she wants to share life with Fernando Pessoa, get married, take care of him, share joys and sorrows. There are countless allusions to marriage, countless requests that denote the need for a more intimate, close, and consistent relationship. On the poet's side, however, from the beginning of these correspondences, the resistances are evident. Although in some letters the affectionate terms proliferate (Íbis, Bebé, Ofelinha, jinhos, among others), what comes to the fore is the poet's cerebral personality, even resorting to his heteronym Álvaro de Campos to accentuate the lack of connection and some lack of seriousness with which he conducts his actions towards Ofélia. The frequency of the letters (as well as their dimension: Pessoa's are shorter and more concise, Ofélia's are longer and more expansive) manages to have a devastating effect, especially from the second phase of courtship (1929). Suddenly, we begin to perceive that the only person who is striving to keep this record and form of contact alive is Ofélia... her voice seems to fade slowly until it disappears completely (something that evoked the atmosphere that Jean Cocteau created in his formidable \\"A Voz Humana\\").

Time, which ages the faces and the hair, ages also, but even more rapidly, the violent affections. Most people, because they are stupid, manage not to notice this, and think they still love because they have contracted the habit of feeling in love. If it were not so, there would be no happy people in the world. The superior creatures, however, are deprived of the possibility of this illusion, because they can neither believe that love lasts, nor, when they feel it ended, deceive themselves by taking for it the esteem, or the gratitude, that it left.

Time has a profound impact on our lives, especially on our emotions. It is an inescapable force that shapes and changes everything. The aging of our physical appearance is a visible manifestation of time's passage, but its effect on our emotions is often overlooked. Violent affections, such as intense love or hatred, seem to fade more quickly than we might expect.

Most people are not aware of this because they are too preoccupied with their daily lives or simply lack the self-awareness to notice. They continue to believe that their feelings are as strong as ever, when in fact they may have already changed. This is where the habit of feeling in love comes in. People become so accustomed to the idea of being in love that they convince themselves that their feelings are still genuine, even when they are no longer the same.

However, for the superior creatures, those who are more perceptive and self-aware, this illusion is not possible. They understand that love is a fleeting emotion that cannot last forever. When their love ends, they do not delude themselves into thinking that they still love or that their feelings have simply changed into something else, such as esteem or gratitude. They accept the reality of the situation and move on.

In conclusion, time has a significant impact on our emotions, especially on our violent affections. While most people are able to deceive themselves into believing that their feelings are still strong, the superior creatures are deprived of this illusion. They understand that love is transient and that we must learn to accept the changes that time brings.

3.5

This is a fantastic book that offers a delicious perspective on Fernando Pessoa, the man behind the author.

It delves deep into his life, his thoughts, and his creative process, providing readers with a unique and intimate look at this literary giant.

The author has done an excellent job of bringing Pessoa to life, painting a vivid picture of his complex personality and the world in which he lived.

Whether you are a die-hard fan of Pessoa or simply interested in learning more about him, this book is a must-read.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys literature, philosophy, or psychology.

It is a truly engaging and thought-provoking work that will leave you with a newfound appreciation for Fernando Pessoa and his contributions to the literary world.

So, don't hesitate to pick up this book and embark on a journey through the mind of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.

You won't be disappointed!

“Do you love me because I am who I am or because I am not? Or do you not really love me whether I am or not? Or?”

Reading "Letters to Ophelia," which consists of the letters Fernando Pessoa wrote to Ophelia Queiroz, the only woman who entered his life, came to my mind after reading Richard Zenith's comprehensive biography of Pessoa. It is possible to learn quite a lot about that relationship from that book, and there are also excerpts from some letters, but of course, it cannot replace reading the entire texts.

Frankly, I can't think of a sentence from Pessoa other than the one I quoted above - these are exactly the kind of questions he would ask. However, strangely, a sentence from a letter he wrote towards the end of the relationship, Pessoa in the early stages of the relationship is not at all like the Pessoa we know; he is happy, childlike, and funny. Perhaps that's why, when that first flame dies out and he returns to being himself, he feels the need to ask, "Do you love me because I am not?"

Although he never confessed and never had a known relationship with a man, we now accept that Pessoa was bisexual. Therefore, I also learned from Zenith's biography that he first tried to convince himself about this relationship. It is also possible to see the traces of this in the letters. Of course, it is not possible to fully understand the story because Ophelia's responses are not there, but one can understand that Pessoa tried to act according to the relationship that should have been in his mind. He clearly loved Ophelia very much, but whether he felt a physical desire, that is unknown. It's as if he loved her as a person and then, in a sense, with the guilt that came from convincing her of something that didn't exist, his love also changed form, turning into a kind of burden, a kind of debt.

Still, despite everything, it was nice to see this unknown, unrecognized side of Pessoa. The part added at the end of the text and the part where Ophelia tells about their relationship was also quite sad but very enlightening. Let me end with a sentence of Pessoa that she conveyed: "Never tell anyone that I am a poet, at most I write poetry."

It is interesting to perceive how Pessoa's mind could function. What a sad story for poor Ophelia. She really had a tough time.

It is also unfortunate to witness how his health deteriorated because of Abel and company.

Jinhos. Maybe there is more to this than meets the eye. We can only imagine the complex emotions and thoughts that were going through Pessoa's mind during those times. His relationship with Ophelia and the situation with Abel must have had a significant impact on him.

Perhaps further exploration into his works and personal life could shed more light on this mysterious and fascinating individual.

Sevdiğiniz birinin, bazen sadece birer insan olduklarını unutursunuz. Onun ürettikleri, düşündükleri, en önemlisi size hissettirdikleri o kadar gerçeküstüdür ki onu insana dair kırıklıklarla, parçalanmışlıklarla, düşüşler ve hatta aşkla düşünemezsiniz.

This person, for me, is Pessoa, who, despite containing'many' people within him, is alone.

Sometimes he is Alberto Caeiro, sometimes Alvaro de Campos... Sometimes he appears as Ricardo Reis, sometimes as Bernardo Soares.

He leaves behind a box; and entrusts to us the restlessness that we have always felt within ourselves.

His childhoods, too, have been like staring out of a window. Writing letters and eagerly awaiting their replies.

He has watched Ophélia, loved her in his own way, and given her up in his own way...

What remains are again his words... Not in a box but in the hands of a woman...

The Letters to Ophélia also showed me sides of Pessoa that I didn't know. There were moments when he couldn't contain himself like a small child, for example, his jealousies, his outbursts of anger...

These are short but intense letters. The kind that everyone would like to have... They take only a few minutes to read but you would keep them for years...

I have missed Pessoa. If you haven't met him yet, take your paths to Lisbon, to the Arcada, for a coffee with him, or rather 'them'... I feel as if I have seen him even without going...

With Sema Rifat's careful translation...

Terrível Bebé:

I like your letters, which are sweet, and I also like you, who is also sweet. And you are good, and you are a wasp, and you are honey, which comes from bees and not wasps, and everything is right, and the Baby must always write to me, even if I don't write, which is always, and I am sad, and I am crazy, and no one likes me, and also because why would they like me, and that's it, and it brings everything back to the beginning, and it seems to me that I will still call you today, and I would like to give you a kiss on the mouth, with exactitude and greed and eat your mouth and eat the little kisses that you had hidden there and lean on your shoulder and slide into the tenderness of the doves, and ask you for forgiveness, and the forgiveness be feigned, and return many times, and the full stop until starting again, and why is it that Ophelinha likes a scoundrel and a drunkard and a ruffian and an individual with the appearance of a gas meter reader and a general expression of not being there but in the sink of the house next door, and exactly, and finally, and I'm going to stop because I'm crazy, and I always was, and it's from birth, that is to say since I was born, and I would like the Baby to be my doll, and I would act like a child, undress her, and the paper ends right here, and this seems impossible to be written by a human being, but it is written by me,

Fernando

It is not worth less than if the reader is a fan of Pessoa, or a fan of discovering oneself as a fan of someone in media res, so to speak, in any biographical work – just as I discovered Johnny Cash while watching Walk The Line. But the essay that precedes the book is very good, and it gives several things to think about regarding the "true fiction" of the author as an attitude towards the real, a matter of being a character of oneself and of delegating "to another, who was the same, the task of living a love story". As one cannot be separated from the other, even the performance brings some joy and some pain, which intertwine. The anguish at the bottom of all pleasures also has a pleasure at the bottom of it.

The literary genius who claimed that all love letters are ridiculous shows, in this book, to be an avid producer of the same.

However, beyond the expected romantic sallies, we can find in this set of letters, sufficient proofs of the literary superiority, ironic and critical, of one of the greatest figures in national literature, as can be seen in the following excerpts:

"Don't be surprised that my letter is a bit exquisite. There are two reasons for this. The first is that this paper (the only one available now) is very coarse, and the pen passes through it very quickly; the second is that I have discovered at home a splendid Porto wine, of which I opened a bottle and have already drunk half. The third reason is that there are only two reasons, and therefore there is no third reason at all. - Álvaro de Campos, engineer."

"Goodbye; I'm going to lie down in a bucket head down, to rest the spirit. That's what all great men do - at least when they have - 1st spirit, 2nd head, 3rd bucket to put the head in."

"I saw her, one of the times, only out of the corner of my eye, and the unfortunate ones who wear glasses have an imperfect side glance."

(read the full review at: notadepagina.blogspot.com)