Antonio Porchia Quotes
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Antonio Porchia was an Argentinian poet. He was born in Conflenti, Italy, but, after the death of his father in 1900, moved to Argentina. He wrote a Spanish book entitled Voces , a book of aphorisms. It has since been translated into Italian and into English , French, and German. A very influential, yet extremely succinct writer, he has been a cult author for a number of renowned figures of contemporary literature and thought such as André Breton, Jorge Luis Borges, Don Paterson, Roberto Juarroz and Henry Miller, amongst others. Some critics have paralleled his work to Japanese haiku and found many similarities with a number of Zen schools of thought. Wikipedia  

✵ 13. November 1885 – 9. November 1968
Antonio Porchia: 276   quotes 17   likes

Antonio Porchia Quotes

“I am in myself so little that what they do with me scarcely interests me.”

Estoy tan poco en mí, que lo que hacen de mí, casi no me interesa.
Voces (1943)

“A child shows his toy, a man hides his.”

El niño muestra su juguete, el hombre lo esconde.
Voces (1943)

“Man lives measuring, and he’s the measure of nothing. Not even of himself.”

El hombre vive midiendo, y no es medida de nada. Ni de sí mismo.
Voces (1943)

“Only a few arrive at nothing, because the road is long.”

Sólo algunos llegan a nada, porque el trayecto es largo.
Voces (1943)

“The grieving for everyone and about everything has become a grieving for myself, to myself. And it is still growing.”

El lamentarme todos y de todo, creciendo, ha illegado a ser el lamentarme de mí mismo a mí mismo. Y crece todavía.
Voces (1943)

“The condemnation of an error is another error.”

La condenación de un error es otro error.
Voces (1943)

“When you and the truth speak to me, I do not listen to the truth. I listen to you.”

Cuando tú y la verdad me hablan, no escucho a la verdad. Te escucho a ti.
Voces (1943)

“Yes, I will go. I would rather grieve over your absence than over you.”

Sí, me apartaré. Prefiero lamentarme de tu ausencia que de ti.
Voces (1943)

“My body separates me from all beings and all things. Only my body.”

Mi cuerpo me separa de todo ser y de toda cosa. Nada más que mi cuerpo.
Voces (1943)

“Sometimes at night, I turn on the light so as not to see.”

A veces, de noche, enciendo una luz, para no ver.
Voces (1943)

“Times when I understand myself a little, I understand others less.”

Las veces que me comprendo un poco, comprendo menos a los demás.
Voces (1943)

“I know what I have given you, I do not know what you have received.”

Qué te he dado, lo sé. Qué has recibido, no lo sé.
Voces (1943)

“One learns not to need by needing.”

Se aprende a no necesitar, necesitando.
Voces (1943)

“Sometimes what I want and what I don’t want make so many concessions to each other that they end up looking alike.”

A veces lo que deseo y lo que no deseo se hacen tantas concesiones que llegan a parecerse.
Voces (1943)

“He who has seen everything empty itself is close to knowing what everything is filled with.”

Quien ha visto vaciarse todo, casi sabe de qué se llena todo.
Voces (1943)

“He who does not fill his world with phantoms remains alone.”

Quien no llena su mundo de fantasmas, se queda solo.
Voces (1943)

“The killer of souls does not kill a hundred souls. He kills his own soul a hundred times.”

El matador de almas no mata cien almas; mata una alma sola, cien veces.
Voces (1943)

“You are fastened to them and cannot understand how, because they are not fastened to you.”

Está atado a ellos y no comprendes cómo, porque ellos no están atados a ti.
Voces (1943)

“I would ask something more of this world, if it had something more.”

Yo le pediría algo más a este mundo, si tuviese algo más este mundo.
Voces (1943)

“The dream that doesn’t feed on dream disappears.”

El sueño que no se alimenta de sueño desaparece.
Voces (1943)

“If you could escape your sufferings and did so, where would you go outside of them?”

Si pudieras salir de tus penas y salieras de tus penas, ¿sabrías adonde ir fuera de tus penas?
Voces (1943)

“When I throw away what I don't want, it will fall within reach.”

Lo que no quiero, al arrojarlo de mis manos, va a caer al alcance de mis manos.
Voces (1943)

“I keep my hands empty for the sake of what I have had in them.”

Llevo mis manos vacía, por lo que hubo en mis manos.
Voces (1943)

“I would go to heaven, but I would take my hell; I would not go alone.”

Iría al paraíso, pero con mi infierno; solo, no.
Voces (1943)

“In no one did I find who I should be like. And I stayed like that: like no one.”

No hallé como quien ser, en ninguno. Y me quedé, así: como ninguno.
Voces (1943)

“Man, when he is merely what he seems to be, is almost nothing.”

El hombre, cuando es solamente lo que parece ser el hombre, casi no es nada.
Voces (1943)

“My voice tells me: “That’s how it all is.” And the echo of my voice tells me: “That’s how you are.””

Mi voz me dice: “Así es todo”.
Y el eco de mi voz me dice: “Así eres tú”.
Voces (1943)

“That which came before me and that which comes after me have almost come together, they have almost become one thing, they have have almost been left without me.”

Lo antes que yo y lo después que yo casi se han unido, casi son uno solo, casi se han quedado sin yo.
Voces (1943)

“A big heart can be filled with very little.”

Un corazón grande se llena con muy poco.
Voces (1943)

“My poverty is not complete: it lacks me.”

Voces (1943)

“The heart is an infinity of massive chains, chaining little handfuls of air.”

El corazón es un infinito de pesadísimas cadenas, encadenando puñaditos de aire.
Voces (1943)

“It is easier to pick it up fallen than not to let it fall. Let it fall and you will pick it up.”

Es más fácil levantar la caída que no dejarla caer. Déjala caer y la levantarás.
Voces (1943)

“Treat me as you should treat me, not as I should be treated.”

Trátame como debes tratarme, no como merezco ser tratado.
Voces (1943)

“If you do not raise your eyes, you will think you are the highest point.”

Si no levantas los ojos, creerás que eres el punto más alto.
Voces (1943)

“You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own.”

Eres un fantoche, pero en las manos de lo infinito, que tal vez son tus manos.
Voces (1943)

“Certainties are arrived at only on foot.”

Las certidumbres sólo se alcanzan con los pies.
Voces (1943)

“The deep, seen with depth, is surface.”

Voces (1943)

“If I didn’t think the sun looked at me a little, I wouldn’t look at it.”

Si no creyera que el sol me mira un poco, no lo miraría.
Voces (1943)

“When everything is done, the mornings are sad.”

Cuando todo está hecho, las mañanas son tristes.
Voces (1943)

“Knowing how to die costs a lifetime.”

Voces (1943)

“I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes.”

Con mi encadenamiento a la tierra pago la libertad de mis ojos.
Voces (1943)

“One who says the truth says hardly anything.”

Quien dice la verdad, casi no dice nada.
Voces (1943)

“I know I had everything, but not because I had it. I know because afterwards I had nothing else.”

Que tuve todo lo sé, no por lo que tuve. Lo sé porque después no tuve más.
Voces (1943)

“A new pain enters and the old pains of the household receive it with their silence, not with their death.”

Entra una nueva pena y las viejas penas de la casa la reciben calladas, no muertas.
Voces (1943)

“I am in yesterday, today. And tomorrow? In tomorrow I was.”

Estoy en el ayer, en el hoy. ¿Y en mañana? En el mañana estuve.
Voces (1943)

“Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me.”

De lo que tomo, tomo de más o de menos, no tomo lo justo. Lo justo no me sirve.
Voces (1943)

“Pain lies above, not below. And they all think that pain is below. And they all want to rise.”

El dolor está arriba, no abajo. Y todos creen que el dolor está abajo. Y todos quieren subir.
Voces (1943)

“Those who do not find a fountain through which to pour their tears, do not cry.”

No llora quien no encuentra uns fuente donde verter su llanto.
Voces (1943)