Anxious recording

Author: Fernando Pessoa
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The creators of human civilization can be broadly categorized into two types: some turn great dreams into real life, while others transform unattainable dreams into great ideals. Fernando Pessoa clearly belongs to the latter. He once said, "I will walk only one bridge, spanning what I lack and what I possess." Through this bridge, we see "the bright flash of reason piercing the profound darkness of life," witness "life being filled with paradoxes—like a rose intertwined with thorns," and encounter a sincere, vast, yet sensitive, weary, and contradictory soul. This is a collection of late essays by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, composed of "diary-like" fragments. It is one of the author's major works, a long-lost piece that was later compiled and organized by numerous scholars and researchers of Pessoa. In the essays, the author's stance often shifts—sometimes spiritual, sometimes material; sometimes individualistic, sometimes social; sometimes aristocratic, sometimes egalitarian; sometimes scientific, sometimes faith-based. This is consistency amidst change, unity amidst diversity, firmness within contradiction, and clarity within obscurity. It is precisely this spirit and this solitary break into the world that have earned Fernando Pessoa the titles of "the core figure of European modernism," "an outstanding classicist," and a writer "who deepens the human soul" from contemporary critics. The renowned contemporary Chinese writer Han Shao Gong, noticing omissions in previous translations, carefully selected four-fifths of the original work and rendered it into Chinese. His translation is elegant in style, making for a delightful reading experience.