Conscious

 I'm older than Time and Space, because I'm conscious. Things derive from me; the whole of Nature is the offspring of my sensations.

I seek and don't find. I want and can't have.

Without me the sun rises and expires; without me the rain falls and the wind howls. It's not because of me that there are seasons, the twelve months, time's passage.

Lord of the world in me which, like earthly lands, I can't take with me . . .

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, ch. 218

As is so often the case in The Book of Disquiet, Pessoa seems to be writing at cross purposes. On the one hand, "Things derive from me; the whole of Nature is the offspring of my sensations." On the other hand, "Without me the sun rises and expires." But is Pessoa really talking talking about two different things? He proposes that, "I'm older than Time and Space, because I'm conscious." So, nature carries on, "the rain fails and the winds howls", but it's his perception that constructs and gives meaning to Time and Space.