Quotes From "The Keeper Of Sheep" By Alberto Caeiro

I don’t have a philosophy: I have senses... If I talk about Nature, it’s not because I know what it is, But because I love it, and that’s why I love it, Because when you love you never know what you love, Or why you love, or what love is. Loving is eternal innocence, And the only innocence is not thinking. Alberto Caeiro

It’s stranger than every strangeness And the dreams of all the poets And the thoughts of all the philosophers, That things are really what they seem to be And there’s nothing to understand. Alberto Caeiro

The man stopped talking and was looking at the sunset. But what does someone who hates and loves want with a sunset? Alberto Caeiro

I don’t always feel what I know I should feel. My thought crosses the river I swim very slowly Because the suit men made it wear weighs it down. Alberto Caeiro

A stagecoach passed by on the road and went on; And the road didn’t become more beautiful or even more ugly. That’s human action on the outside world. We take nothing away and we put nothing back, we pass by and we forget; And the sun is always punctual every day.(5/7/14) Alberto Caeiro

I saw that there is no Nature, That Nature doesn’t exist, That there are hills, valleys, plains, That there are trees, flowers, weeds, That there are rivers and stones, But there is not a whole these belong to, That a real and true wholeness Is a sickness of our ideas. Alberto Caeiro

All the evil in the world comes from us bothering with each other, Wanting to do good, wanting to do evil. Our soul and the sky and the earth are enough for us. To want more is to lose this, and be unhappy. Alberto Caeiro

Even so, I’m somebody. I’m the Discoverer of Nature.I’m the Argonaut of true sensations. I bring a new Universe to the UniverseBecause I bring the Universe to itself. Alberto Caeiro

If I could take a bite of the whole world And feel it on my palate I’d be more happy for a minute or so.. But I don’t always want to be happy. Sometimes you have to be Unhappy to be natural.. Not every day is sunny. When there’s been no rain for a while, you pray for it to come. So I take unhappiness with happiness Naturally, like someone who doesn’t find it strange That there are mountains and plains And that there are cliffs and grass.. What you need is to be natural and calm In happiness and in unhappiness, To feel like someone seeing, To think like someone walking, And when it’s time to die, remember the day dies, And the sunset is beautiful, and the endless night is beautiful.. That’s how it is and that’s how it should be.. Alberto Caeiro

All beings exist and nothing else And that’s why they’re called beings Alberto Caeiro

There’s enough metaphysics in not thinking about anything. Alberto Caeiro

Things don’t have significance: they only have existence. Things are the only hidden meaning of things. Alberto Caeiro

What does this think about that? Nothing thinks about anything. Does the earth have consciousness of its stones and plants? If it did, it would be people.Why am I worrying about this? If I think about these things, I’ll stop seeing trees and plants And stop seeing the EarthFor only seeing my thoughts.. I’ll get unhappy and stay in the dark. And so, without thinking, I have the Earth and the Sky. Alberto Caeiro

Praise be to God I’m not good, And have the natural egotism of flowers And rivers following their bed Preoccupied without knowing it Only with blooming and flowing. This is the only mission in the World, This–to exist clearly, And to know how to do it without thinking about it.) Alberto Caeiro

The river of my village doesn’t make you think about anything. When you’re at its bank you’re only at its bank. Alberto Caeiro

But if God is the flowers and the trees And the hills and the sun and the moonlight, Then I believe in him, Then I believe in him all the time, And my whole life is an oration and a mass, And a communion with my eyes and through my ears. Alberto Caeiro

I’m a keeper of flocks. The flock is my thoughts And my thoughts are all sensations. I think with my eyes and with my ears And with my hands and feet And with my nose and mouth. Thinking about a flower is seeing and smelling it And eating a piece of fruit is knowing its meaning. That’s why when on a hot day I feel sad from liking it so much, And I throw myself lengthwise on the grass And shut my hot eyes, And feeling my whole body lying on reality, I know the truth and I’m happy. Alberto Caeiro

And sometimes if I want To imagine I’m a lamb( Or a whole flock Spreading out all over the hillside So I can be a lot of happy things at the same time), It’s only because I feel what I write at sunset, Or when a cloud passes its hand over the light And silence runs over the grass outside. When I sit and write poems Or, walking along the roads or pathways, I write poems on the paper in my thoughts, I feel a staff in my hand And see my silhouette On top of a knoll, Looking after my flock and seeing my ideas, Or looking after my ideas and seeing my flock, With a silly smile like someone who doesn’t understand what somebody’s saying But tries to pretend they do. Alberto Caeiro

Let’s be simple and calm, Like brooks and trees, And God will love us by making Beautiful things like the trees and brooks for us, And give us greenness in his spring, And a river for us to go to when we end... Alberto Caeiro

One day when God fell asleep And the Holy Ghost went off flying, He got into a box of miracles and stole three. With the first he made it so that no one would know he had run away. With the second he made himself a human boy forever. With the third he created a Christ eternally crucified And left him nailed to the cross that there is in HeavenWhere he’s used as a model for other crosses. Then he ran away to the sun And came down on the first ray he caught. Alberto Caeiro

If they want me to have mysticism, okay, I’ve got it. I’m a mystic, but only in my body, My soul is simple and doesn’t think. Alberto Caeiro

Sometimes in the evening on Summer days, Even when there’s not a breeze at all, it seems Like there’s a light breeze blowing for a minute But the trees are unmoving In every leaf of their leaves And our feelings have had an illusion, An illusion of what would please them... Alberto Caeiro

Yes, this is what my senses alone have learned:– Things don’t have significance: they only have existence. Things are the only hidden meaning of things. Alberto Caeiro

Lightly, lightly, very lightly, A wind passes very lightly And goes away, always very lightly. And I don’t know what I think And I don’t want to know. Alberto Caeiro

The Tejo runs down from SpainAnd the Tejo goes into the sea in Portugal.Everybody knows that. But not many people know the river of my village And where it comes from And where it’s going. And so, because it belongs to less people, The river of my village is freer and greater. Alberto Caeiro

That lady has a piano. It’s nice, but it’s not the running of rivers Or the murmuring trees make ..Who needs a piano? It’s better to have ears And love Nature. Alberto Caeiro

I don’t bother with rhyme. RarelyAre two trees the same, one beside the other. I think and write like flowers have color But with less perfection in my way of expressing myself Because I lack the divine simplicity Of wholly being only my exterior. I see and I’m moved, Moved the way water runs when the ground is sloping And what I write is as natural as the rising wind... Alberto Caeiro