Two of our 2004 guests were Margaret Atwood and her charming husband, Graeme, who came to “walk in Pessoa’s footsteps.” I had always considered Pessoa a literary kook until then, but I’ve since come to think of him fondly. This New York Times article has some amusing insights into Pessoa and the Portuguese psyche including:
“But he had a way of being that is distinctly Portuguese.” He paused to find the right words. “It has to do with everything and nothing — that we Portuguese can have everything, but still feel we have nothing.”
Portugal, he explained, had discovered half the world by the 16th century but still felt itself a failure for having not discovered the rest. The national mind-set, Mr. Lourenço said, is “a combination of megalomania and humility.”
… Mr. Lourenço gathered his thoughts one more time. “He is the most tragic of the Portuguese poets,” he said. “The pleasure of unhappiness is particularly Portuguese.”
Full article: Portugal Holds on to Words Few can Grasp (NYTimes)
15 July 2008
