Konstandinos Kawafis cytaty strona 2

„Wracaj często i zagarniaj mnie,
uczucie, które kocham, wracaj i mnie zagarniaj –
gdy się roznieca w ciele pamięć
i we krwi pulsuje dawne pragnienie,
gdy wargi i skóra pamiętają,
a rękom się zdaje, że dotykają znów.”

Źródło: Tak, jak możesz, 1913

„gdy szczęście przychodzi,
zazwyczaj niesie radość mniejszą niż ta, której
czekano.”

Źródło: Wracaj, 1912

„w wielkim – czynionym przez tych, których nie cierpię – dodawaniu,
obejmującym tyle cyfr, ja z pewnością nie jestem
cyfrą jedną z wielu. W całość sumy
mnie nie wliczono. I ta mi radość wystarcza.”

Źródło: Gdy strażnik ujrzał światło, 1900

“Its councils are full of Legislators
no charlatan can fool.”

Źródło: Dodawanie, 1897

Konstandinos Kawafis: Cytaty po angielsku

“The frivolous can call me frivolous.
I’ve always been most punctilious about
important things.”

The First Step http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=145&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992) Kontekst: Just to be on the first step should make you happy and proud. To have come this far is no small achievement: what you have done is a glorious thing. Even this first step is a long way above the ordinary world. To stand on this step you must be in your own right a member of the city of ideas. And it is a hard, unusual thing to be enrolled as a citizen of that city. Its councils are full of Legislators no charlatan can fool.

“And, for me, the whole of you has been transformed into feeling.”

A Byzantine Nobleman in Exile Composing Verses http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=16&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992) Kontekst: The frivolous can call me frivolous. I’ve always been most punctilious about important things. And I insist that no one knows better than I do the Holy Fathers, or the Scriptures, or the Canons of the Councils.

“Don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive — don’t mourn them uselessly.”

" In the Same Space http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_134.htm" (1929) Kontekst: p>I created you while I was happy, while I was sad, with so many incidents, so many details.And, for me, the whole of you has been transformed into feeling.</p

“Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility.”

The God Abandons Antony http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=12&cat=1 (1911). Variant translations: Like one who’s long prepared, like someone brave, as befits a man who’s been blessed with a city like this, go without faltering toward the window and listen with deep emotion, but not with the entreaties and the whining of a coward, to the sounds — a final entertainment — to the exquisite instruments of that initiate crew, and bid farewell to her, to Alexandria, whom you are losing. As translated by Daniel Mendelsohn (2009). Don't mourn your luck that's failing now, work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive — don't mourn them uselessly: as one long prepared, and full of courage, say goodbye to her, to Alexandria who is leaving. Unknown translator http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_20.htm Collected Poems (1992) Kontekst: Don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now, work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive — don’t mourn them uselessly. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say it was a dream, your ears deceived you: don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.

“The days of the future stand in front of us
Like a line of candles all alight —
Golden and warm and lively little candles.”

The Regiment of the Senses http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=296&cat=5 as translated by Manuel Savidis Kontekst: Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility. When the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners; when the senses shiver and shudder, it is only a fool and and an irreverent person that will keep his distance, who will not embrace the good cause, marching towards the conquest of pleasures and passions. All of morality’s laws – poorly understood and applied – are nil and cannot stand even for a moment, when the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners.

“The holy Cross goes forward; it brings joy and consolation
to every quarter where Christians live;
and these God-fearing people, elated,
stand in their doorways and greet it reverently,
the strength, the salvation of the universe, the Cross.”

"Candles" [Κεριά], as translated by Manolis, in Constantine P. Cavafy: Poems (2008) edited by George Amabile

“If you are one of the truly elect,
be careful how you attain your eminence.”

A Great Procession of Priests and Laymen http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=87&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“One candle is enough. Its gentle light
will be more suitable, will be more gracious
when the Shades arrive, the Shades of Love.”

Theodotos http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=105&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“And from this marvellous pan-Hellenic expedition,
triumphant, brilliant in every way,
celebrated on all sides, glorified
incomparable, we emerged:
the great new Hellenic world.”

To Call Up the Shades http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=17&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds you lay on,
but also those desires glowing openly
in eyes that looked at you,
trembling for you in voices.”

In The Year 200 B. C. (1931)

“Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.”

" Body, Remember... http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_45.htm" (1918)

“How much we’ll tell down there, how much,
and how very different we’ll appear.
What we protect here like sleepless guards,
wounds and secrets locked inside us,
protect with such great anxiety day after day,
we’ll disclose freely and clearly down there.”

Constantine P. Cavafy Waiting for the Barbarians

Źródło: Waiting for the Barbarians (1904), l. 16

“Nero wasn’t worried at all when he heard
the utterance of the Delphic Oracle:
“Beware the age of seventy-three.”
Plenty of time to enjoy himself still.
He’s thirty. The deadline
the god has given him is quite enough
to cope with future dangers.”

“The Rest I Will Tell to Those Down to Hades” http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=173&cat=4 Collected Poems (1992)

“From my most unnoticed actions,
my most veiled writing —
from these alone will I be understood.”

Nero’s Deadline http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=53&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“The love they felt wasn’t, of course, what it once had been;
the attraction between them had gradually diminished,
the attraction had diminished a great deal.
But to be separated, that wasn’t what they themselves wanted.”

Hidden Things
Collected Poems (1992)

“Later, in a more perfect society,
someone else made just like me
is certain to appear and act freely.”

Before Time Altered Them http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=123&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“The matter, says Mardonios, has gone too far,
the talk it has aroused must be stopped at all cost. —
So Julian goes to the church at Nicomedia,
a lector again, and there
with deep reverence he reads out loud
passages from the Holy Scriptures,
and everyone marvels at his Christian piety.”

Κατόπι — στὴν τελειοτέρα κοινωνία —
κανένας ἄλλος καμωμένος σὰν ἐμένα
βέβαια θὰ φανεῖ κ’ ἐλεύθερα θὰ κάμει.
Hidden Things
Collected Poems (1992)

“He was a quiet, gentle man,
a man who loved peace
(his country had suffered much
from the wars of his predecessor),
he behaved graciously toward everyone,
humble and great alike.
Never high-handed, he always sought advice
in the kingdom’s affairs
from serious, experienced people. Just why his nephew killed him
was never precisely explained.”

Julian in Nicomedia
Collected Poems (1992)

“And in Spain Galba
secretly musters and drills his army —
Galba, the old man in his seventy-third year.”

King Claudius http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=163&cat=4 (inspired by the story of Hamlet by William Shakespeare) Collected Poems (1992)

“He remembers impulses bridled, the joy
he sacrificed. Every chance he lost
now mocks his senseless caution.”

Nero’s Deadline
Collected Poems (1992)

“Whatever job they give me,
I'll try to be useful to the country. That's what I intend.
But if they frustrate me with their manoeuvres —
we know them, those smart operators: no need to say more here —
if they frustrate me, it's not my fault.”

An Old Man
Collected Poems (1992)

“We for the best will strive. And always more
defective, more perplexing than before,
shall all things fare; until, as in a mist,
we stray bewildered. Then we shall desist.
For in that helpless hour the gods attend.
They always come, the gods. They will descend
from their machines, and straightway liberate
some and as suddenly exterminate
others; and having reformed us, they will go. —
And afterward, one will act so; and so
another; and in time the rest will do
as they needs must. And we shall start anew.”

Źródło: To Have Taken The Trouble (1930), l. 18

“From all I did and all I said
let no one try to find out who I was.”

The Intervention of the Gods http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=235&cat=4 Poems by C. P. Cavafy (2003)

“Try to keep them, poet,
those erotic visions of yours,
however few of them there are that can be stilled.
Put them, half-hidden, in your lines.”

Hidden Things http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=161&cat=4 Collected Poems (1992)

“As the shores of Ithaca gradually
Faded away behind him
And he sailed swiftly westward
Toward Iberia and the Pillars of Hercules,
Far from every Achaean sea,
He felt he was alive once more,
Freed from the oppressive bonds
Of familiar, domestic things.
And his adventurous heart rejoiced
Coldly, devoid of love.”

When They Come Alive http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=114&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“Roses by the head, jasmine at the feet —
so appear the longings that have passed
without being satisfied, not one of them granted
a night of sensual pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.”

Second Odyssey http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=329&cat=4, as translated by Walter Kaiser Collected Poems (1992)

“And if you can’t shape your life the way you want,
at least try as much as you can
not to degrade it
by too much contact with the world,
by too much activity and talk.”

Longings http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=45&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“When setting out upon your way to Ithaca,
wish always that your course be long,
full of adventure, full of lore.”

As Much As You Can http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=113&cat=1 Collected Poems (1992)

“A month passes by and brings another month.
Easy to guess what lies ahead:
all of yesterday’s boredom.
And tomorrow ends up no longer like tomorrow.”

" Ithaka http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_17.htm", l. 1 (1911)