Portugal has probably had many great poets, but I only know of two:  Luis Camoes and Fernando Pessoa.  I have a book of Pessoa’s poems on the boat.  He wrote great poetry under four different identities and styles.  And one critic considered him to be one of the five seminal writers of the Twentieth Century; the others being Eliot, Kafka, Cavafy, and Borges.

        During my brief interval in Durban before flying back here, I spent most of my time in the marina and along the waterfront, walking into the city only a few times to run errands and go to a supermarket.  On one of those walks I was surprised to find the above statue. 

        I think of Pessoa as living in Lisbon and had forgotten that he spent part of his childhood in Durban, where his stepfather was the Portuguese consul for a few years.  I wonder if any of those who pass the statue now know who he was, or even notice it.  But Pessoa must be used to being ignored, being little known in his lifetime and dying in obscurity.

        The words on the Durban statue are:

                            Fernando Pessoa

                            1888-1935

                          “Oh Salty Sea

                            How Much Of Your Salt

                            Are Tears Of Portugal”

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        Also from Durban came an email with a quote relevant to the last post.

        “Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.”  --Shimon Perez.