Love Letters - Fernando Pessoa

All letters of love are ridiculous,
they would not be love letters
if they were not
ridiculous.

During my days
I too wrote love letters,
like others,
ridiculous.

Love letters,
if there is love,
have to be
ridiculous.

But at the end
only those creatures
who never wrote love letters are really
ridiculous.

I wish I were in the times
of writing those letter of love,
not knowing they were
ridiculous.

But truly today
my memories of those letters
are the ones that are really
ridiculous.

(All the strange words,
all the strange thoughts are naturally
ridiculous)


A rendering of Fernando Pessoa's Portuguese poem.