Pensar em Deus

 Pensar em Deus e desobedecer a Deus,

Porque Deus quis que o nao conhecessemos,

Por isso se nos nao mostrou . . .

To think about God is to disobey God,

Since God wanted us not to know him,

Which is why he didn't reveal himself to us . . .

Let's be simple and calm,

Like the trees and streams,

And God will love us, making us 

Us even as the trees are trees 

And the streams are streams, 

And will give us greenness in the spring, which is its season,

And a river to go to when we end . . .

And he'll give us nothing more, since to give us more would make us less us.

Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa)

Fernando Pessoa is perpetually surprising, and not simply because he often spoke through his heteronyms. Of his three main poetic heteronyms, Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, and Alvaro de Campos, it is Caeiro who holds a special place. In fact, the other heteronyms, including Pessoa, referred to Caeiro as "the master." His is the more pastural vision, but also the most spiritual. The line, "To think about God is to disobey God," has quickly become one of my all-time favorite literary expressions (and I suspect will find its way onto my tombstone, probably in the original Portuguese). In a way, it reminds me of one of my favorite lines from the the Qur'an: "Remember your Lord humbly and in awe." That line, from the end of the seventh surah, expresses a simpler and quieter view of how one should address the divine. If anything, Pessoa's poetic admonition is even more stripped down. God is beyond rational thought, and can't be limited by it.