A literary coincidence

The Ex just quoted me some lines of poetry by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa - including this one I particularly liked: "In every corner of myself I erect an altar to a different god."

I would love to be able to quote that in the original language, but I am afraid it is beyond my resources to locate it....

It just so happens that my very good friend The Arts Entrepreneur is also a huge fan of Pessoa - indeed, he once wrote a short play based on his writings, called 'Only As Multiple' (Pessoa was a deeply eccentric talent, a sort of literary schizophrenic: he wrote under scores of pseudonyms, each one of them a distinct and detailed persona, often with a complete 'biography' created to support it).

This is not perhaps such a strange coincidence, since I tend to be attracted to fellow enthusiasts for literature; and these are probably the two best-read and most creative of all of my friends, the two finest writers I know. However, Pessoa is a relatively obscure figure, I think; not much known outside of his own country.

The Ex and The Entrepreneur are - in their very different, but both slightly crazy, ways - the two people with whom I feel the greatest affinity among all my friends, are probably the two people that I love best in this world. It did briefly give me goosebumps to reflect that they are also the only two people ever to have quoted Pessoa to me.