I Am a Shepherd, by Fernando Pessoa

a poem

I first read Fernando Pessoa’s work when I visited Portugal in 2022. His writing is delightfully melancholy and he is known for his exploration of his many alter-egos, or as we would say now in Internal Family Systems parlance, his many parts. This is an uncharacteristically optimistic poem of his.

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I am a shepherd.

The sheep are my thoughts

and all my thoughts sensations.

I think with my eyes and ears,

my feet and hands

my nose and mouth.

To think a flower is to see it, and smell it,

and to eat a fruit is to know its meaning.

And so, on a very hot day,

sad at enjoying it so much,

I lie flat in the grass,

I close my hot eyelids,

I feel all my body, lying down in reality,

I recognise the truth, and I’m happy.