“His conception of the universe is, however, instinctive, not intellectual; it can't be criticized as a concept, because there’s none there, and it can't be criticized as temperament, because temperament can't be criticized.” PhilosophyRealityUniverseSeeingCriticismClarityFeelingTemperamentConceptAlberto Caeiro Author:Álvaro de Campos
“The Amorous Shepherd is a fruitless interlude, but those few poems are among the world’s greatest love poems, because they’re love poems about love, not about being poems. The poet loves because he loves, not because love exists.” LoveLifeRealityTruthPoetryExistenceBeautySeeingClarityMeaningFeelingPaganismPantheismAlberto CaeiroThe Amorous Shepherd Author:Álvaro de Campos
“he woman Caeiro fell in love with. I have no idea who she was, and I intend to never find out, not even out of curiosity. There are things of which the soul refuses to lose its ignorance. I’m perfectly aware no one’s obliged to reciprocate love, and great poets have nothing to do with being great lovers. But there’s a transcendent spite... Let her remain anonymous even to God!” LoveRealityTruthPoetryExistenceSeeingLoversFeelingTranscendenceFall In LoveAlberto CaeiroReciprocationThe Amorous Shepherd Author:Álvaro de Campos
“Superior poets say what they really feel. Mediocre poets say what they decide to feel. Inferior poets say what they think they should feel.” ThinkingLifeWritingRealityTruthPoetryPoetMeaningFeelingPoetsMediocrePaganismPantheismSuperiorInferior Author:Álvaro de Campos
“But what you’re calling poetry is what everything is. It’s not even poetry — it’s seeing. These materialists are blind. You told me they say space is infinite. Where do they see that in space?” And I, disconcerted: “But don’t you think of space as infinite? Can’t you conceive of space as infinite?” “I don’t conceive of anything as being infinite. How could I conceive of anything as being infinite?” “But, man,” I said, “Imagine space. Beyond that space is more space, and beyond that more, and then more, and more... It never ends...“ “Why?” asked my master Caeiro.” LifeGodRealityPoetryUniverseNatureSpaceExistenceSeeingEternityClarityMaterialismFeelingInfinityPaganismIt Is What It IsPantheismNo Mind Author:Álvaro de Campos
“and the idea of nothingness — the most terrifying of all ideas, when thought of with feeling — has, in my dear master’s work and in my memories of him, something as high and luminous as sunlight upon snowy, unscalable peaks.” LifeRealityUniverseExistenceSnowClarityMeaningFeelingNothingnessBeingMountainsPaganismPantheismSunligh Author:Álvaro de Campos