#c.p. cavafy

[psikonauti]

David Hockney (British, b. 1937)

Two boys aged 23 or 24 (Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy), 1966

Etching and aquatint on paper

[frequentpondcrosser]

PRAYER

By Constantine Cavafy

The sea took a sailor down to her depths.

His mother, unaware, goes and lights

a tall candle before the Virgin Mother

for his quick return and for good weather—

and ever towards the wind she cocks her ear.

But while she pleads and says her prayer,

the icon listens, sad and solemn,

knows the son she awaits will never come.

(Translation by Randall Couch)

[lightthereis]

“And if you can’t shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you cannot degrade it...” ― Constantine P. Cavafy/Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης (Greek Poet)

[claymotif]

hometown blues

arcade fire, suburban war | rachel kahn, i know this | noah kahan, the view between villages | the lumineers, sleep on the floor | phoebe bridgers, i know the end | fatimah asghar, how did your parents die again | i know the end | c.p. cavafy, the city (tr. edmund keeley) | the view between villages | mahmoud darwish, journal of an ordinary grief | i know the end | lorde, 400 lux | noah kahan, paul revere | sidney gish, homecoming serf | i know the end | hanif abdurraqib, poems from an email exchange | alec holowka, die anywhere else

[mariuspompom]

Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, XII, Flight to the Ford

Fellowship of the Ring, Book 2, II, The Council of Elrond

The Two Towers, Book 4, II, The Passage of the Marshes

The Two Towers, Book 4, III, The Black Gate is Closed

The Two Towers, Book 4, V, The Window on the West

The Two Towers, Book 4, VI, The Forbidden Pool

"Seven, Brienne thought again, despairing. She had no chance against seven, she knew. No chance, and no choice". Asoiaf, A Feast for Crows - Brienne VII

"Honor to those who in the life they lead define and guard a Thermopylae. Never betraying what is right, consistent and just in all they do but showing pity also, and compassion; generous when they're rich, and when they're poor, still generous in small ways, still helping as much as they can; always speaking the truth, yet without hating those who lie. And even more honor is due to them when they foresee (as many do foresee) that Ephialtis will turn up in the end, that the Medes will break through after all". Thermopylae, Constantine P. Cavafy

"Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death [he quotes Simone de Beauvoir] 'All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident [...].' Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord Of The Rings". JRR Tolkien

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

For some people there’s a day

when they have to come out with the great Yes

or the great No. It’s clear at once

who has the Yes ready in him; and saying it,

he goes on to find love, honor, strong in his conviction.

He who refuses never repents. Asked again,

he’d still say no. Yet that no—the right answer—

defeats him the whole of his life.

C.P. Cavafy

[painterinkrakow]

Wojciech Ćwiertniewicz, Cavafy, 1982, ink

[themadscene]

Can’t believe I wrote this a decade ago.

[withnailrules]

My life has been awaiting you. Your footfall was my own heart's beat.

—C.P. Cavafy

[poems-from-around-the-world]

The City - C.P. Cavafy - Greece

Translators: Edmund Keeley, Philip Sherrard (Greek)

You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,

find another city better than this one.

Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong

and my heart lies buried like something dead.

How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?

Wherever I turn, wherever I look,

I see the black ruins of my life, here,

where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”

You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.

This city will always pursue you.

You’ll walk the same streets, grow old

in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.

You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:

there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.

Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,

you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.

[frequentpondcrosser]

[magnoliamagica]

[lipstickboyboy]

The Windows, C.P. Cavafy

[xoxo-rielle]

– C.P. Cavafy, An excerpt from Ithaka

[haveyoureadthispoem-poll]

"You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore, / find another city better than this one."

Read it here | Reblog for a larger sample size!

[painterinkrakow]

Wojciech Ćwiertniewicz, Cavafy, Their Beginning, 1982