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Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of Fernando Pessoa > Text of Sonnet IX [Oh to be idle loving idleness]

A poem by Fernando Pessoa

Sonnet IX [Oh to be idle loving idleness]

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Title:     Sonnet IX [Oh to be idle loving idleness]
Author: Fernando Pessoa [More Titles by Pessoa]

Oh to be idle loving idleness!
But I am idle all in hate of me;
Ever in action’s dream, in the false stress
Of purposed action never set to be.
Like a fierce beast self-penned in a bait-lair,
My will to act binds with excess my action,
Not-acting coils the thought with raged despair,
And acting rage doth paint despair distraction.
Like someone sinking in a treacherous sand,
Each gesture to deliver sinks the more;
The struggle avails not, and to raise no hand,
Though but more slowly useless, we’ve no power.
Hence live I the dead life each day doth bring,
Repurposed for next day’s repurposing.





[The end]
Fernando Pessoa's poem: Sonnet IX [Oh to be idle loving idleness]

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