I Have More Souls Than One

by Fernando Pessoa

But my sadness is calm Because it is natural and right And is what there should be in the soul When it is thinking it exists And the hands are picking flowers without noticing which.

My thoughts are contented. Only, I am sorry I know they are contented, Because, if I did not know it, Instead of being contented and sad, They would be cheerful and contented.

I have no ambitions or wants. To be a poet is no ambition of mine. It is my way of staying alone.

And I don’t know what I think And have no wish to know.

Beauty is the name of something that does not exist Which I give to things in exchange for the pleasure they give me. It signifies nothing. And yet why do I say of things: they are beautiful?

Yes, even I, who live only by living, Am caught up invisibly in the lies of men About things, About things which simply exist. How difficult to be just oneself and not see anything but the visible!

My mysticism is not to try to know. It is to live and not think about it.