He that Goes Back Does by Fernando Pessoa — Read

He that goes back does, since he goes, advance,

Though he doth not advance who goeth back, / And he that seeks, though he on nothing chance, / May still by words be said to find a lack.

This paradox of having, that is nought / In the world's meaning of the things it screens, / Is yet true of the substance of pure thought / And there means something by the nought it means.

For thinking nought does on nought being confer, / As giving not is acting not to give, / And, to the same unbribed true thought, to err / Is to find truth, though by its negative.

So why call this world false, if false to be / Be to be aught, and being aught Being to be?