NOTA: Para
uma discussão muito breve do simbolismo deste poema inserido
no conjunto d'Os Tempos ver a minha introdução
a "O Encoberto".
English
version
An introduction
to the poem: According
to an old prophecy, king Sebastian did not die in Morocco and he
will one day return to his homeland, arriving in a misty morning.
Mist is thus intertwined with the myth of the return of the Desejado
(he who is yearned for), be he king Sebastian or someone else. In
this final poem of Mensagem, Fernando Pessoa introduces a
final turn that allows for a masterful close to the whole Poem:
he describes the rather hapless and forsaken situation of his country
at the time of his writing and ends by stating that such situation
is, symbolically speaking, mist. And so he cries out that
the time is thus come: "It is the hour!" meaning that
a time such as his is indeed the right moment for the prophecy to
be fulfilled!
Mist
Neither king nor law, neither peace nor war,
Define with outline and substance
This
dull brilliance of the land
That
is Portugal sinking in sadness -
Brightness without light or heat,
Like
that which the will-o’-the-wisp confines.
Nobody
knows what one wants.
Nobody is aware of one’s own soul,
Nor
of what is evil, nor of what is pure.
(What distant anxiety weeps nearby?)
All is uncertain and ultimate.
All is fragmented, nothing is whole.
Oh Portugal, today you are mist...
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