The only freedom the gods grant us
Is this: to submit
Of our own free will to their sovereignty.
We should do just that,
Since only in the illusion of freedom
Does freedom exist.

Pessoa’s lines stage a paradox typical of his poetry: freedom is not presented as an objective condition but as a subjective stance. If the “gods” (fate, necessity, impersonal forces) ultimately rule, then the only remaining human agency is the manner of assent—choosing to submit “of our own free will.” The closing claim, that freedom exists only as an “illusion,” can be read less as nihilism than as psychological realism: what we experience as freedom may be a narrative we adopt to live coherently under constraint. The poem thus explores dignity under determinism—self-command expressed through consent rather than control.