Pessoa and the Masters – Antero de Quenta, Cesário Verde, Camilo Pessanha, Fernando Pessoa (PT/EN)

To each one of only three poets in nineteenth and twentieth century Portugal can the term “master” be applied. They are Antero de Quental, Cesário Verde and Camilo Pessanha. I concede that a few might come before these on general merit; I do not concede that another can come before any one of these in terms of opening up a new path, revealing a new direction, which in matters of literature, properly speaking, constitutes mastery. (…)

The first taught how to think in rhythm, the second taught how to observe in verse, the third taught us to feel behind a veil; he discovered for us the truth that a poet needn’t carry his heart in his hands, but rather it is enough to carry in them, fully exposed, the heart’s outlandish dreams.”

This text, and others like it, by Fernando Pessoa – for many the greatest Portuguese-language writer of all time – have allowed us to imagine this book: a dialoguing anthology of four of the most remarkable Portuguese poets, these three acknowledged masters and Pessoa himself. In this way, essential poems from the same poetic tradition, which reached its golden age in the 20th century and had a decisive influence on later poetry, have been brought into dialogue in a bilingual edition that also makes them accessible to a wide English-speaking readership.