Heteronyms

I found this poem by "Alvaro de Campos" one of the multiple 

personalities of one of my favorite poets: Fernando Pessoa. 

I love Pessoa, because he was able to create at least four different people 

out of his pen. Four different poets that wrote in different styles: 

Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis and of course, Fernando Pessoa. 

All coming out of the same head, the same pen, the same sensibility. 

Sometimes I feel the same, because I seem to be interested 

in everything under the sun, and I am very hesitant about becoming 

"specialist" in something. This poem about tiredness is a good example 

of what extreme specialization can do to your well being. 

Maybe split-personalities is the solution to that dilemma. 

Toni

I Am Tired

Alvaro de Campos

I am tired, that is clear,
Because, at certain stage, people have to be tired.
Of what I am tired, I don't know:
It would not serve me at all to know
Since the tiredness stays just the same.
The wound hurts as it hurts
And not in function of the cause that produced it.
Yes, I am tired,
And ever so slightly smiling
At the tiredness being only this -
In the body a wish for sleep,
In the soul a desire for not thinking
And, to crown all, a luminous transparency
Of the retrospective understanding ...
And the one luxury of not now having hopes?
I am intelligent: that's all.
I have seen much and understood much of what I
	have seen.
And there is a certain pleasure even in tiredness
	this brings us,
That in the end the head does still serve for
	something.


	(24.06.1935) 

If you want to read more poems by Pessoa or his multiple personalities, 

you can look into this page: