Two Odes by Ricardo Reis | Fernando Pessoa, Margaret Jull Costa, Patricio Ferrari

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42/I

[1923–1924]

Seated securely on the solid pillar
            Of the verses in which I remain,
I have no fear of the endless future influx
            Of times and oblivion;
For the mind, when it steadfastly sees in itself
            The reflections of the world,
Becomes malleable clay, and it is the world
            That creates art, not the mind.
Just as the external instant engraves its being
            on the photographic plate, and there endures.

163

[21 November 1928]

Fate, deny me anything but the chance to view my fate,
For, lax stoic that I am,
On the sentence engraved by Destiny I wish
Simply to enjoy the lettering.

Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) was a Portuguese poet who created nearly 140 fictional alter egos, including Ricardo Reis.

Margaret Jull Costa

Margaret Jull Costa has translated a wide range of Spanish and Portuguese writers, among them Javier Marías, José Saramago, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, and Ana Luísa Amaral. Patricio Ferrari and Costa's translation of Pessoa’s The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis will be published in April. (February 2026)

Patricio Ferrari

Patricio Ferrari is a poet, editor, and translator of works by António Osório, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Frank Stanford. He received the 2026 Fence Modern Poets Series Prize for Mud Songs, which will be published later this year. Jull Costa and Ferrari’s translation of Pessoa’s The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis will be published in April. (February 2026)

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