In Lisbon’s Baixa district, at No. 42 Rua da Assunção, the firm Félix, Valladas & Freitas was in business. It is at this address that the story of Fernando Pessoa and Ofélia Queiroz begins: they met there on October 8, 1919. She had just started working at the firm and, as far as we know, was the poet’s only girlfriend, as the Casa Fernando Pessoa points out.
The office on Rua da Assunção
Pessoa earned a living translating the company’s business correspondence. Ofélia, born in 1900, was 19 years old and joined the firm to work as a secretary, typing in the same office on the second floor of the building.
According to the Casa Fernando Pessoa’s guide to Pessoa’s life, the romance began discreetly, right in the office itself, with glances and notes exchanged between the two. Pessoa’s first letter to Ofélia is dated March 1, 1920.
Two Phases and a Letter Signed by Álvaro de Campos
The first phase of the relationship lasted until November 29, 1920, when Pessoa ended the courtship. Nearly ten years later, in September 1929, the two grew close again. This time, there was even a letter written to Ofélia in the name of Álvaro de Campos, one of the poet’s heteronyms, to which she replied, also addressing Campos.
The second phase was brief: Pessoa’s last letter to Ofélia is dated January 11, 1930. They never married. Pessoa died in 1935, and Ofélia lived until 1991. Pessoa’s love letters—some thirty from the first phase and just over a dozen from the second, according to essayist Leyla Perrone-Moisés—were eventually published in a book and continue to be reprinted.
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