Against destiny I fulfilled my duty . Uselessly? No, for I fulfilled it. - Fernando Pessoa

نمرُّ حالمين . الأرض تبتسم ، الفضائل تزداد نُدرة

I'm certain, but my certainty is a lie.
To be certain is to not be seeing.
The day after tomorrow doesn't exist.
This is what exists:
A blue sky that's a bit hazy and some white clouds on the
horizon,
With a dark smudge underneath, as if they might turn black.
This is what today is,
And since for the time being today is everything, this is
everything.
I might be dead — who knows? — the day after tomorrow,
In which case the storm that will strike the day after
tomorrow
Will be a different storm than it would be if I hadn't died.
I realize that the storm doesn't fall from my eyes,
But if I'm no longer in this world, the world will be
different — There will be one person less — And the storm, falling in a different world, won't be the
same storm.
In any case, the storm that's going to fall will be the one
falling when it falls.

10 JULY 1930

La libertad es la posibilidad del aislamiento. Eres libre si puedes alejarte de los hombres, sin que te obligue a buscarlos la necesidad de dinero, o la necesidad gregaria, o el amor, o la gloria, o la curiosidad, que no puede encontrar alimento en el silencio y la soledad. Si te resulta imposible vivir solo, has nacido esclavo. Puedes tener toda la grandeza de espíritu, toda la grandeza del alma: eres un esclavo noble o un siervo inteligente: no eres libre. Y la tragedia no es cosa tuya, porque la tragedia de haber nacido así no es cosa tuya, sino solamente del Destino. Ay de ti, no obstante, si la opresión de la vida, ella misma te obliga a ser esclavo. Ay de ti si, habiendo nacido libre, capaz de bastarte y aislarte, la penuria te obliga a convivir. Ésa sí es tu tragedia y la que llevas contigo.