Fower Pessoas

• A bold reimagining of an indispensable European writer’s poetry into a mixed dialect of Scots and English by an exciting next-generation, prize-winning Scottish poet
• Bramwell puts all four of Fernando Pessoa’s main poetic personae into present-day Scots- language vernaculars, recreating Pessoa for a contemporary audience
• By turns wise, empathetic, anxious, frustrated, moody, depressive and hilarious, this reinterpretation celebrates Pessoa’s extraordinary range of modes, moods, styles and ethics

Fower Pessoas is the most original work of translation that you will read this year: a bold reimagining of Fernando Pessoa’s poetry by an exciting next-generation Scottish poet. Following his subject’s unique approach to composition, Colin Bramwell puts all four of Pessoa’s heteronyms into a present-day Scots-language vernacular, and so creates a parochial Pessoa for our own times.

Bramwell’s adaptation matches his subject’s restless lyricism. It is rare to see a translator go toe-to-toe with their subject in this way. The resulting entanglement makes for some astonishing, full-throated poetry.

Readers will be delighted by this witty, emotive and artful reinterpretation of an indispensable European poet. Fower Pessoas not only celebrates Pessoa’s extraordinary range of modes and moods, but also marks the arrival of an outstanding new talent in Scottish poetry.

The original text by Pessoa shimmers in the background like a living moving ghost whilst Bramwell works his magic front stage. Bramwell’s new collection Fower Pessoas – translations into Scots of poems by Fernando Pessoa (or by four of his aliases/heteronyms) – could soon be considered a modern Scots language masterpiece. The Scotsman

Fower Pessoas is a revelation, and shows just how strong Scots poetry can be. … What is exceptional is that Bramwell fashions distinct, plural Scots for Pessoa’s different heteronyms. The chutzpah is amazing. Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman