full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ilan Stavans: Will the real Fernando please stand up?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


From among almost 30,000 pages of unpublished work stashed in his trunk, critics eventually assembled “The Book of Disquiet” in 1982, which Pessoa spent two decades developing. It declares itself, in typically cryptic fashion, “the auioropabhtgy of someone who never existed.” Pessoa wrote it as the fictional diary of his so-called semi-heteronym, Bernardo sroeas, whose personality he described as a “mere mutilation” of his own. Often frustrated by life’s demands, the book’s ntraorar explores how delving inwards through literature helps him epsace reality’s cefnonis. He cunlntoosuiy challenges conceptions of the self as a singular, reblalie unit— instead grappling with identity as indefinite, each pseorn a shifting sum of their parts. “My soul is a hidden orchestra,” the first entry reads. “I do not know what instruments, what violins and harps, drums and tambours sound and clash inside me. I know myself only as a spmohyny.”

Open Cloze


From among almost 30,000 pages of unpublished work stashed in his trunk, critics eventually assembled “The Book of Disquiet” in 1982, which Pessoa spent two decades developing. It declares itself, in typically cryptic fashion, “the _____________ of someone who never existed.” Pessoa wrote it as the fictional diary of his so-called semi-heteronym, Bernardo ______, whose personality he described as a “mere mutilation” of his own. Often frustrated by life’s demands, the book’s ________ explores how delving inwards through literature helps him ______ reality’s ________. He ____________ challenges conceptions of the self as a singular, ________ unit— instead grappling with identity as indefinite, each ______ a shifting sum of their parts. “My soul is a hidden orchestra,” the first entry reads. “I do not know what instruments, what violins and harps, drums and tambours sound and clash inside me. I know myself only as a ________.”

Solution


  1. symphony
  2. reliable
  3. confines
  4. soares
  5. autobiography
  6. escape
  7. person
  8. continuously
  9. narrator

Original Text


From among almost 30,000 pages of unpublished work stashed in his trunk, critics eventually assembled “The Book of Disquiet” in 1982, which Pessoa spent two decades developing. It declares itself, in typically cryptic fashion, “the autobiography of someone who never existed.” Pessoa wrote it as the fictional diary of his so-called semi-heteronym, Bernardo Soares, whose personality he described as a “mere mutilation” of his own. Often frustrated by life’s demands, the book’s narrator explores how delving inwards through literature helps him escape reality’s confines. He continuously challenges conceptions of the self as a singular, reliable unit— instead grappling with identity as indefinite, each person a shifting sum of their parts. “My soul is a hidden orchestra,” the first entry reads. “I do not know what instruments, what violins and harps, drums and tambours sound and clash inside me. I know myself only as a symphony.”

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. assembled
  2. autobiography
  3. bernardo
  4. book
  5. challenges
  6. clash
  7. conceptions
  8. confines
  9. continuously
  10. critics
  11. cryptic
  12. decades
  13. declares
  14. delving
  15. demands
  16. developing
  17. diary
  18. drums
  19. entry
  20. escape
  21. eventually
  22. existed
  23. explores
  24. fashion
  25. fictional
  26. frustrated
  27. grappling
  28. harps
  29. helps
  30. hidden
  31. identity
  32. indefinite
  33. instruments
  34. inwards
  35. literature
  36. narrator
  37. orchestra
  38. pages
  39. parts
  40. person
  41. personality
  42. pessoa
  43. reads
  44. reliable
  45. shifting
  46. singular
  47. soares
  48. soul
  49. sound
  50. spent
  51. stashed
  52. sum
  53. symphony
  54. tambours
  55. trunk
  56. typically
  57. unpublished
  58. violins
  59. work
  60. wrote