Explore "I do not Know what Truth the False Untruth" by Fernando Pessoa on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I do not know what truth the false untruth
Of this sad sense of the seen world may own, / Or if this flowered plant bears also a fruit / Unto the true reality unknown.
But as the rainbow, neither earth's nor sky's, / Stands in the dripping freshness of lulled rain, / A hope, not real yet not fancy's, lies / Athwart the moment of our ceasing pain.
Somehow, since pain is felt yet felt as ill, / Hope hath a better warrant than being hoped; / Since pain is felt as aught we should not feel / Man hath a Nature's reason for having groped, / Since Time was Time and age and grief his measures, / Towards a better shelter than Time's pleasures.