Although generally considered one of Portugal’s greatest poets, Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (1888-1935) published but one book in Portuguese in his lifetime. That book, Message (Portuguese Mensagem), the esoteric epic at which he labored sporadically for more than twenty years before finally publishing it in the year prior to his death, is undoubtedly essential to an understanding of Pessoa’s poetic vision, yet it remains, at least in the English-speaking world, relatively unknown and unread.
