That appear and then pop

Like a large blot of smudged fire
The setting sun lingers in the clouds that remain.

I hear a faint whistle in the distance of the still evening.

It must be a distant train.

In this moment I feel a vague nostalgia

Along with a vague and placid desire

That comes and goes.

So too, sometimes, on the surface of streams,

There are bubbles of water

That appear and then pop.

And they have no meaning

But to be bubbles of water

That appear and then pop.

- Fernando Pessoa

The Roses of the Gardens of Adonis

The roses of the gardens of Adonis
Are what I love, Lydia, those flitting roses

    That in the day when they are born,

           Within that day, die.

The light's for them eternal, because they

Are born with the sun born already, and sink

    Before Apollo may yet leave

        The visible course he has.

Like them, let us make of our lives one day, -

Voluntarily, Lydia, unknowing

    That there is night before and after

        The little that we last.

- Fernando Pessoa

To be great, be entire

To be great, be entire: of what's yours nothing
    Exaggerate or exclude.

Be whole in each thing. Put all that you are
    Into the least you do.
Like that on each place the whole moon
    Shines, for she lives aloft.

I Want

I want - unknown and calm
Because unknown, and my own

Because calm - to fill my days

With wanting no more than them.

Those whom wealth touches - their skin

Itches with the gold rash.

Those whom fame breathes upon -

Their life tarnishes.

To those for whom happiness is 

Their sun, night comes round.

But to one who hopes for nothing

All that comes is grateful.