Explore "Oh to be Idle Loving Idleness!" by Fernando Pessoa on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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.