| D.SEBASTIÃO REI DE PORTUGAL |
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Louco,
sim, louco, porque quiz grandeza
Qual
a Sorte a não dá.
Não
coube em mim minha certeza;
Por
isso onde o areal está
Ficou
meu ser que houve, não o que há.
Minha
loucura, outros que me a tomem
Com
o que nella ia.
Sem
a loucura que é o homem
Mais
que a besta sadia,
Cadáver
addiado que procria?
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Comentários: "areal"- o campo de Alcácer Quibir. "ficou meu ser que houve, não o que há"- ficou o meu corpo, não a minha alma que vive eterna. "sem a loucura que é o homem mais do que a besta sadia"- sem o sonho (impossível, neste caso) o homem é apenas um animal vivente. "cadáver adiado que procria"- vivo e a reproduzir-se (sem outra finalidade do que, como nos animais, a propagação da espécie) mas inexorávelmente destinado à morte. |
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An introduction to the poem: King Sebastian dreamt of crushing the Muslim of North Africa and, having thus gained an access to the borders of the Turkish Empire, unite the Christian kingdoms in a crusade aimed at eradicating the Islamic faith. He is said to have hoped to establish a Portuguese supremacy among the Christian nations that would make of Portugal the source of the Fifth Empire. In 1578 he made the first move of his grand scheme of conquest by passing into Africa to battle the Moroccans but his army was defeated in El-Ksar-el-Kebir, where he probably died. This poem is dedicated to him as a martyr (one of the "quinas" in the coat of arms), and to his dream of the Fifth Empire which in Pessoa's fruitful mind persists in the idealized form of an Empire of the Spirit that will one day be brought forth by a Portuguese which is indistinctly referred to elsewhere in Mensagem as The Hidden One, The Yearned-for, or King Sebastian. Sebastian, King of Portugal Mad,
yes, mad, because I wanted greatness
Such as Fate does not grant.
I could not live up to my certainties;
Thus, where the sandy expanse is,
I left who I was, not who I am.
My madness, let others take it up
Along with all that went with it.
Without madness what is man
But a healthy beast,
Postponed corpse that begets?
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