#c.p. cavafy

[erikakohuts]

helena eagan / 'the windows' by 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

[painterinkrakow]

Wojciech Ćwiertniewicz, Cavafy, Their Beginning, 1982

[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

[xoxo-rielle]

– C.P. Cavafy, An excerpt from Ithaka

[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

[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

[d-petsi]

[painterinkrakow]

Wojciech Ćwiertniewicz, Cavafy, 1982, ink

[frequentpondcrosser]

[magnoliamagica]

[lipstickboyboy]

The Windows, C.P. Cavafy

[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!