.
What is my life worth? At the end (I don’t know what end)
One person says: I earned three hundred contos,
Another: I enjoyed three thousand days of glory,
Another: I was at ease with my conscience and that is enough…
And I, if they come and ask me what I have done,
Will say: I looked at things, nothing more.
And that is why I have the Universe here in my pocket.
And f God asks me: And what did you see in those things?
I will answer: Only things … You yourself added nothing else.
And God, who despite all is clever, will make me a new kind of
………. saint.
by Fernando Pessoa
from The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro
New Directions Paperbook, 2020
translated from the Portuguese by
…Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari
Conto: a former money of account in Portugal and Brazil