My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tamboura I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony.

Pessoa’s image of the “hidden orchestra” captures a central preoccupation of his writing: the self as a composite, partially unknowable multiplicity. The speaker senses inner forces—impulses, memories, moods, and competing “voices”—but cannot identify their separate “instruments” or how they produce their effects. What reaches consciousness is only the resultant “symphony,” the felt totality of experience. The metaphor also suggests artistry without full authorial control: the psyche performs itself, and the individual hears the music but cannot fully see the mechanism. In Pessoa’s broader work, this resonates with his fascination with fragmentation, interiority, and the limits of self-knowledge.