He's been recommended to me recently. What do you think

An absolute genious, most people here only read Book of Disquiet, but his poetry is where its at, anything wrote by Alvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis should be read, also Mensagem (no heteronym)

>>10007610
>An absolute genious
Haha, nah
>most people here only read Book of Disquiet
Because that's the only interesting thing he ever wrote

>>10007610
Thanks, I appreciate it.

>>10007617
Haha, you should kill yourself today

>>10007672
t. butthurt portugo

>>10007610
>absolute
>genious
Those words don't mean what you think they mean.

It's me, your portuguese anon. I like Pessoa, but I believe that much of his merit comes from the fact that he wrote a metric shit ton of poetry. Nonetheless, some is incredibly good (I have no idea about english translations, though), and you can loosely decide on which heteronym to read depending on what themes/styles you believe you'll enjoy the most: Alberto Caeiro, the hypothetical sheep-fucker who despises metaphysics in favour of some sort of pantheism; Ricardo Reis, the pagan gay philosopher; Álvaro de Campos, the drifting, nihilistic machine loving sad boi. There are many more, but these 3 are the most critically acclaimed. I would advise against reading Mensagem if your knowledge of portuguese culture and history is lacking, as its thematics are deeply connected with portuguese folklore. Mensagem, however, is the only book which Pessoa wrote with intentions of publishing as a coese work of poetry. Everything else was salvaged and put together by editors after his death.

Allow me to suggest another poet, whom Pessoa himself deemed a great influence: Camilo Pessanha, and his work Clepsydra. Again, I don't know about english translations, but if you manage to find one, or are able to read in portuguese, give it a try. Pessanha is a percursor of the modernist poets, and you can clearly read his influence on the likes of Pessoa and Sá-Carneiro. Generally speaking,Clepsydra deals with the transience of life, beauty, love, and is ten times more alluring than the disperse poetry of Pessoa.

>>10007897
If you aren't Portuguese or you aren't fluent in Portuguese how can you even know if he's good or bad? Portuguese is more complex than English and especially when it comes to poetry, translations always fail miserably.

What about esoteric part of his books. How it important in his works?

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>>10008324
Thanks a bunch, anon.