In a discussion about how a village may be larger than a city
because you can see more of the world there -- Pessoa quotes (on p. 241)
these lines from Alberto Caeiro, one of his writing personas:
Because I am the size of what I see
And not the size of my own stature.
These lines are from Millimeters (the observation of infinitesimal things),
on pp. 67-69:
Millimeters -- their existence side by side,
so close together on the ruler,
provokes in me such an impression of wonder and daring . . .
I am an endlessly sensitive photographic plate.
In me every tiny detail is recorded and magnified
to form part of a whole.
Newton's binomial is as beautiful as Venus de Milo. What happens is that few people notice it.Fernando Pessoa as Álvaro de Campos.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing these lines of Pessoa to reader's attention. (See also https://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.com/2016/08/more-from-bridges-poets.html)
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