X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Fernando Pessoa


Cape Bojador

The mythic importance of the cape for Portugal was captured in Fernando Pessoa's early 20th century work "Mensagem." In famous stanzas from this longer poem Pessoa wrote of the enormous costs of the Portuguese explorations to the nation.

Dramatis personæ

Fernando Pessoa, the Anglo-Portuguese writer, created about 80 pen names he called heteronyms or dramatis personæ interrelated in a «drama in people».


Joseba Sarrionandia

He has translated books by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner), Constantine P. Cavafy, T. S. Eliot, Manuel Bandeira, Fernando Pessoa (Marinela), Marcel Schwob (La Croisade des enfants), Dolf Verroen (Slaaf kindje slaaf) and various literary works of fifty different languages.

Margaret Jull Costa

Margaret Jull Costa was joint-winner of the Portuguese Translation Prize in 1992 for The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, and was runner-up in 1996 and 2002 for The Relic by Eça de Queiroz and The Migrant Painter of Birds by Lídia Jorge.


see also

Jorge Melício

Examples include the "Familia" in Fernando Pessoa Garden, near the assembly of the municipal of Lisboa and the recent ceramic monument dedicated to the life and work of Queen Santa Isabel, at the headquarters of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (bank) in Lisbon.