A bilingual edition of poems by Luís de Camões (born 1524), Cesário Verde (born 1855), Mário de Sá-Carneiro (born 1890), Florbela Espanca (born 1894), and Fernando Pessoa (born 1888, writing as Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Capos and himself).
According to his introduction, Luís de Camões is "considered to be Portugal's national poet ... equal in status to Renaissance peers like Shakespeare and Dante".
Mário de Sá-Carneiro killed himself at 25. One of his poems ends with "A little more sunshine - and I would have been ember,/ a little more blue - and I would have taken flight,/ But I lacked that impulse to get there .../ If only I had remained where I was ..."
Florbela Espanca killed herself at 36. Her mother was a 15 y.o. housemaid when her boss made her pregnant. Espanca studied law - she was one of 7 female students at the university. She had 2 divorces and several miscarriages.
I struggled with most of these poems. My favourite poet of the bunch is Ricardo Reis, one of the Pessoa personae.
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