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Quadras Populares
Fernando Pessoa is one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. This dual-language format makes Quadras ao Gôsto Popular/Quatrains in the Popular Style accessible to scholars who do not read Portuguese, and the preface and notes add a voice to the important, fruitful, ongoing debates about the role of the translator and the principles that should guide literary translation. Fernando Pessoa was himself a translator as well as a poet, translating Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, and Poe’s The Raven and Annabel Lee, among others. Most of the 325 quatrains were written in the last two years of Pessoa’s too-short life. They are not readily available now even in Portuguese, and this is the first English translation to appear, making this edition valuable to all literary scholars.
58 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
About the author
Fernando Pessoa
1,249 books6,648 followersFernando António Nogueira Pessoa was a poet and writer.
It is sometimes said that the four greatest Portuguese poets of modern times are Fernando Pessoa. The statement is possible since Pessoa, whose name means ‘person’ in Portuguese, had three alter egos who wrote in styles completely different from his own. In fact Pessoa wrote under dozens of names, but Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos were – their creator claimed – full-fledged individuals who wrote things that he himself would never or could never write. He dubbed them ‘heteronyms’ rather than pseudonyms, since they were not false names but “other names”, belonging to distinct literary personalities. Not only were their styles different; they thought differently, they had different religious and political views, different aesthetic sensibilities, different social temperaments. And each produced a large body of poetry. Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis also signed dozens of pages of prose.
The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda.
It is sometimes said that the four greatest Portuguese poets of modern times are Fernando Pessoa. The statement is possible since Pessoa, whose name means ‘person’ in Portuguese, had three alter egos who wrote in styles completely different from his own. In fact Pessoa wrote under dozens of names, but Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos were – their creator claimed – full-fledged individuals who wrote things that he himself would never or could never write. He dubbed them ‘heteronyms’ rather than pseudonyms, since they were not false names but “other names”, belonging to distinct literary personalities. Not only were their styles different; they thought differently, they had different religious and political views, different aesthetic sensibilities, different social temperaments. And each produced a large body of poetry. Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis also signed dozens of pages of prose.
The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 10, 2021
Quadras ao Gosto Popular:
Two years before he died, Fernando Pessoa writes hundreds of quatrains; it speculated that they would compose a single text. They were selected, organized and published for the first time in 1965 by George Rudolf Lind and Jacinto do Prado Coelho under Quadras ao Gosto Popular.
Two years before he died, Fernando Pessoa writes hundreds of quatrains; it speculated that they would compose a single text. They were selected, organized and published for the first time in 1965 by George Rudolf Lind and Jacinto do Prado Coelho under Quadras ao Gosto Popular.
December 22, 2021
Li algumas quadras que estavam em uma coletânea do Pessoa quando era adolescente e nunca esqueci. Tô muito feliz de finalmente ter conseguido comprar o livrinho com todas as quadras e mantido todo meu amor por essas rimas. Tudo pra mim!
January 9, 2022
No conjunto, bem mais agradável que Cancioneiro. Várias quadras românticas, que fazem pensar não ter sido por falta de lábia Peßoa ter morrido solteiro e sem filhos.
July 4, 2010
De fato, as quadras estão ao gosto popular, deliciosas de se ler.
December 23, 2014
"O amor é vida a sonhar."
September 7, 2022
Não é o meu trabalho preferido do Fernando Pessoa. É bom, mas não é meu preferido.
January 19, 2008
tricky to translate. these quatrains are simple and evocative like nursery rhymes. each contains its own perfectly formed world in just a few short lines.
October 21, 2017
"Ciò che ho in me
Macina sogni e lo muove il dolore." (p. 93)
"Saudades, solo i portoghesi
Possono provarle davvero,
Perché hanno questa parola
Per dire che le hanno." (p. 101)
Macina sogni e lo muove il dolore." (p. 93)
"Saudades, solo i portoghesi
Possono provarle davvero,
Perché hanno questa parola
Per dire che le hanno." (p. 101)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews