Dialogue with Pessoa

Courtesy to Richard Zenith for his wonderful translation on the part of Fernando Passoa.

‘Today, I feel bored and uninspired.’
‘Really!? Quite contrary, I feel refreshed today with a shower in bright sunshine, and a walk in a grassland nearby.’
‘Today, I feel apathetic, short on desire.’
‘Well, a dog ran to me while I was walking. Its master, a loner, apologized to me but I forgot to smile as the gesture of acceptance. I laughed at myself while seeing the dog ran away. I feel the spring is coming…’
‘I will write my epitaph: “Here lies Alavro…”
‘You are joking! Life is still a myth to me, and my pleasure has not been exhausted in decoding it.’
‘The Greek Anthology has more apropos.’
‘That’s your desire, isn’t it? I mean the compulsion to write something even you are bored and uninspired.’
‘What’s the reason for these several rhymes?’
‘You can ask H, a bloke who displaces his desire into the austerity of rhyming and a dead language.’
‘No reason.’
‘No reason?’
‘A friend I see from time to time wanted to know what I’m doing these days.’
‘You can send him the words you have just said.’
‘And I write these verses to have something to say.’
‘Do you rhythm?’
‘I rarely rhythm, and rhymes rarely succeed.’
‘Don’t you think rhythm will cripple your creativity?’
‘But sometimes to rhyme is an imperative need.’
‘I reckon you have such an imperative need then?!’
‘My heart goes pop like a paper sack’
‘You mind distills consciousness like a sand pack’
‘Filled with air and given a good smack’
‘Scattered with water and taken a pathetic quack’
‘And the startled stranger turns in confusion’
‘And the bemused friend becomes off emotion’
‘And I end this poem without a conclusion…’
‘And I start this poem with exclusion…’
‘Pop’
‘Hip’
‘…’
‘…’