Complete Works of Ricardo Reis

A bilingual collection of exquisite poems and prose by one of Fernando Pessoa’s most famous “heteronyms,” Ricardo Reis

Here is the fourth in a series of volumes by Fernando Pessoa’s celebrated “heteronyms.” Fernando Pessoa did not simply write under pseudonyms―he created a coterie of imagined authors, each with a fully realized biography, distinct temperament, singular style, and governing philosophy. Among them, Ricardo Reis stands as the most poised and classical presence in this literary cosmos: an exiled monarchist physician, and avowed Hellenist who answers modern restlessness with lucid form, stoic restraint, and a pagan sense of measure. Reis contemplates the world as if it were a chessboard―serene, exacting, unsentimental. His odes move among jugs of wine, ivy leaves, destiny, and the austere pleasure of self-command, yet beneath their composure runs a quiet existential unease―the intuition that “within us live innumerable others.” Born in the early twentieth century, between the rise of Cubism and the emergence of Dada, Ricardo Reis embodies antiquity within modernity―his paradoxical poise marking a distinctly modern classicism. Based on the definitive Tinta-da-china edition (Portugal) and introduced by Jerónimo Pizarro, this bilingual volume―beautifully translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari―reveals Pessoa’s most measured voice: intellectually rigorous, emotionally contained, and quietly radical in its resistance to the noise of its age. The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis is a must-have collection by Pessoa’s most refined heteronym.

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), the Portuguese poet, literary critic, and essayist, is one of the most significant literary figures of the twentieth century. He wrote not only under his own name but under over a hundred others (including Alexander Search, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis, and Bernardo Soares).

A poet, translator, and editor, Patricio Ferrari has translated the works of Fernando Pessoa and Alejandra Pizarnik, among others.

Margaret Jull Costa has won countless prizes for her translations from Portuguese and Spanish. Patricio Ferrari is a poet, translator, and editor, and has translated the works of Pessoa and Alejandra Pizarnik among others. Jerónimo Pizarro is Professor at the Universidad de los Andes and holds the Camões Institute Chair of Portuguese Studies in Colombia. Jorge Uribe has edited several editions of Pessoa’s works and translated various Portuguese authors into Spanish.