Lisbon Revisited (1923) 



No: I don't want anything. 
I already said that I don't want anything. 

Don't come to me with conclusions. 
The only conclusion is to die. 

Don't bring me aesthetics! 
Don't talk to me about morality! 
Get your metaphysics out of here! 
Don't preach complete systems to me, don't thread me conquests 
Of the sciences (of the sciences, my God, of the sciences!) - 
 Of the sciences, the arts, of modern civilization! 

What harm have I done to all the gods? 

If they hold the truth, let them keep it! 

I am a technician, but I have technique only inside technique. 
Outwith that I am mad, with every right to be so. 
With every right to be so, did you hear me? 

Don't pester me, for the love of God! 

You'd like me married, futile, daily and taxable? 
You'd like me the opposite of this, the opposite of something? 
If I were somebody else, I'd do you all a favor. 
Like this, the way I am, just be patient! 
Go to hell without me, 
Or let me go to hell on my own! 
Why should we go together? 

Don't grab me by the arm! 
I don't like people grabbing me by the arm. I want to be alone. 
I already said that I am just alone! 
Ah, how you bore me with your wanting me to keep you company! 

Oh blue sky - the same one from my childhood - , 
Eternal truth empty and perfect! 
Oh smooth Tagus ancestral and mute, 
Small truth in which the sky is reflected! 
Oh sorrow revisited, former Lisbon of today! 
You give me nothing, take me nothing, you are nothing that I feel. 

Leave me in peace! I won't be long, I never take very long ... 
And while the Abyss and the Silence keep me waiting, I want to be alone! 

Alvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa)

My translation into English can never be faithful to the original poem which I urge you to read.