Bernardo Soares is perhaps the most intimate and haunting of all Fernando Pessoa’s creations. He is not a true heteronym, but a "semi-heteronym"—someone whose personality is essentially Pessoa’s own, just stripped of a few personal details.

As a quiet assistant bookkeeper in Lisbon, Soares lives an almost invisible external life, but his internal universe is a massive, labyrinthine cathedral of thought. He is the author of The Book of Disquiet, a masterpiece of daydreaming, melancholy, and hyper-awareness. He doesn't want to travel the physical world because he believes his imagination is infinitely vaster. He is a person who has turned "not living" into a supreme art form.

To capture his ghost-like presence, his exquisite sensitivity, and his deep internal exile, here are beautiful Taiwanese concepts that define his unique soul:

1. 恬淡 (Thiam-tām) — A Quiet, Low-Profile Simplicity

Soares lives a life completely free of ambition or a desire for the spotlight. He is content with his dusty ledgers and his quiet room. This term beautifully describes his gentle, unassuming, and tranquil disposition. He doesn't seek grand achievements or social noise; he intentionally keeps his external existence minimal so that his inner mind can remain entirely undisturbed.

2. 寄情夢境 (Ki-tsîng bāng-kíng) — Entrusting the Soul Entirely to Daydreams

Because the real world feels too harsh, blunt, and disappointing for his hyper-sensitive heart, Soares pours all of his emotions, passions, and existence into his internal reveries. This poetic phrase perfectly captures his way of being—someone who builds a safe, gorgeous haven out of thoughts and dreams, finding far more reality in a shadow dancing on a wall than in the actual streets of the city.

3. 虛無 (Hi-bû) — A Profound, Ephemeral Void

There is a beautiful, mist-like emptiness to Soares. He often describes himself as a spectator watching his own life pass by, feeling like a ghost or a character in someone else's story. This term touches on that deep existential weightlessness—the feeling that everything is an illusion, that we are made of smoke and memory, and that the ultimate truth is a quiet, poetic nothingness.

"I’ve always been an ironic dreamer, unfaithful to inner promises. I’ve always enjoyed my life being a spectator of itself..." — Bernardo Soares, The Book of Disquiet

He is the patron saint of all quiet observers, reminding us that sometimes, the greatest voyages ever taken happen entirely without moving an inch from a small, moonlit window.