Why do I desire
by Fernando Pessoa
· 12-8-1916
Published 12/08/1916
Why do I desire
What I do not need?
Why does my soul, like fire,
Or a hot abstract greed,
Seek all that is higher?
Why, if not because
It is a soul? (...)
Who can know the cause
When it lies in its whole
Hidden in (...) laws?
Yet this matters not.
What matters is pining
And that stress of thought
That comes of divining
What to wish that may not be got.