Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone -- Fernando Pessoa

Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone
-- Álvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa)

Ah, the freshness in the face of leaving a task undone!

To be remiss is to be positively out in the country!

What a refuge it is to be completely unreliable!

I can breathe easier now that the appointments are behind me.

I missed them all, through deliberate negligence,

Having waited for the urge to go, which I knew wouldn’t come.

I’m free, and against organized, clothed society.

I’m naked and plunge into the water of my imagination.

It’s too late to be at either of the two meetings where I should have been at the same time,

Deliberately at the same time...

No matter, I’ll stay here dreaming verses and smiling in italics.

This spectator aspect of life is so amusing!

I can’t even light the next cigarette... If it’s an action,

It can wait for me, along with the others, in the non-meeting called life.