#kavafis

[aretis]

[celluloidrainbow]

ΚΑΒΆΦΗΣ | KAVAFIS (1996) dir. Yannis Smaragdis Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt, 1933. Intent on publishing a study on the life and work of a prominent intellectual, a young biographer visits bedridden Konstantinos Kavafis: a Greek poet, journalist, and civil servant from Alexandria. On his 70th birthday, the gravely ill thinker skims through his biography to give his approval, and as he takes a trip down memory lane, little by little, Kavafis relives the pivotal events that shaped his life. (link in title)

[carloskaplan]

Aventuras de Kavafis, por Duane Michals

[eccedentesiastmusician]

Κι αν για τον έρωτά μου δεν μπορώ να πω —

αν δεν μιλώ για τα μαλλιά σου, για τα χείλη, για τα μάτια·

όμως το πρόσωπό σου που κρατώ μες στην ψυχή μου,

ο ήχος της φωνής σου που κρατώ μες στο μυαλό μου,

οι μέρες του Σεπτέμβρη που ανατέλλουν στα όνειρά μου,

τες λέξεις και τες φράσεις μου πλάττουν και χρωματίζουν

εις όποιο θέμα κι αν περνώ, όποιαν ιδέα κι αν λέγω.

(Ο Δεκέμβρης του 1903 - Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης)

[la-novellista]

Qualsiasi cosa tocchi, la carta, il tavolo, il bicchiere, è te che tocco. Le mie mani attaccate ai tuoi seni. Non le controllo le mani. Le mie mani ti ricordano più profondamente della memoria.

E tu?

In tanta stanchezza, l'insaziabilità delle nostre mani

Kavafis

[yorgunherakles]

bekleyişle dalgın değil miydin hep?

rainer maria rilke - duino ağıtları

[schizografia]

Da Kavafis, che importante non è che l’opera che abbiamo lasciato sia letta e compresa, ma che un giorno, sulla terra, qualcuno come noi viva e faccia liberamente, senza piú ostacoli, quello che abbiamo cercato di vivere e fare: «Forse tanta pena, tanto sforzo | per intendere me non mette conto. | Piú tardi, in una comunità migliore | certo qualcuno come me | apparirà, farà – liberamente».

Giorgio Agamben, Quel che ho visto, udito, appreso

[dovevonascerequadro]

L’unghia del tuo dito mignolo più infinita del mare. Per dove mi veleggi? Frugo gli angoli della notte. Il tuo gomito, il tuo ginocchio,il tuo mento. Rotolano pietre senz’alcun rumore. Dove sei? Separatamente le dita dei tuoi piedi, delle tue mani, i tuoi capelli, le tue unghie,le tue ginocchia, le tue ascelle, la morte. Le sigarette, il letto, lo spazio pieno del tuo corpo, la statua del mio sangue. Accendo fiammiferi, mi taglio le unghie, buco le lenzuola. Manchi. Dalla finestra vedo uomini, case, giardini, l'arcobaleno, un trattore arancione, un gatto, un secondo arcobaleno.

Qualsiasi cosa tocchi, la carta, il tavolo, il bicchiere, è te che tocco. Le mie mani attaccate ai tuoi seni. Non le controllo le mani. Le mie mani ti ricordano più profondamente della memoria.

E tu?

In tanta stanchezza, l'insaziabilità delle nostre mani

Kavafis

[manwalksintobar]

The Horses of Achilles  // C.P. Cavafy

When they saw Patroklos dead —so brave and strong, so young— the horses of Achilles began to weep; their immortal nature was upset deeply by this work of death they had to look at. They reared their heads, tossed their long manes, beat the ground with their hooves, and mourned Patroklos, seeing him lifeless, destroyed, now mere flesh only, his spirit gone, defenseless, without breath, turned back from life to the great Nothingness.

Zeus saw the tears of those immortal horses and felt sorry. “At the wedding of Peleus,” he said, “I should not have acted so thoughtlessly. Better if we hadn’t given you as a gift, my unhappy horses. What business did you have down there, among pathetic human beings, the toys of fate. You are free of death, you will not get old, yet ephemeral disasters torment you. Men have caught you up in their misery.” But it was for the eternal disaster of death that those two gallant horses shed their tears. 

(Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)

[cut3d0lly]

Pale as a corpse

[wordsmithic]

Scenes from the Greek documentary "The Byzantine Kavafis" (2013)

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Ἀπολείπειν ὁ θεὸς Ἀντώνιον (The God Abandons Antony)- a poem of Konstantinos Kavafis with English translation)

Ἀπολείπειν ὁ θεὸς Ἀντώνιον  

Σαν έξαφνα, ώρα μεσάνυχτ’, ακουσθεί αόρατος θίασος να περνά με μουσικές εξαίσιες, με φωνές - την τύχη σου που ενδίδει πια, τα έργα σου που απέτυχαν, τα σχέδια της ζωής σου που βγήκαν όλα πλάνες, μη ανωφέλετα θρηνήσεις. Σαν έτοιμος από καιρό, σα θαρραλέος, αποχαιρέτα την, την Aλεξάνδρεια που φεύγει. Προ πάντων να μη γελασθείς, μην πεις πως ήταν ένα όνειρο, πως απατήθηκεν η ακοή σου· μάταιες ελπίδες τέτοιες μην καταδεχθείς. Σαν έτοιμος από καιρό, σα θαρραλέος, σαν που ταιριάζει σε που αξιώθηκες μια τέτοια πόλι, πλησίασε σταθερά προς το παράθυρο, κι άκουσε με συγκίνησιν, αλλ’ όχι με των δειλών τα παρακάλια και παράπονα, ως τελευταία απόλαυσι τους ήχους, τα εξαίσια όργανα του μυστικού θιάσου, κι αποχαιρέτα την, την Aλεξάνδρεια που χάνεις.

The God Abandons Antony 

When suddenly, at midnight, you hear an invisible procession going by with exquisite music, voices, 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. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, as is right for you who proved worthy of this kind of city, go firmly to the window and listen with deep emotion, but not with the whining, the pleas of a coward; listen—your final delectation—to the voices, to the exquisite music of that strange procession, and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing.

Translated to English by Philip Sherrard and Edmund Keeley

The poem is inspired by Plutarch’s Life of Antony 75.3-4 (transl. B. Perrin), describing the last night before Octavian attacks Alexandria (30 August 30 BCE):

“During this night, it is said, about the middle of it, while the city was quiet and depressed through fear and expectation of what was coming, suddenly certain harmonious sounds from all sorts of instruments were heard, and the shouting of a throng, accompanied by cries of Bacchic revelry and satyric leapings, as if a troop of revellers, making a great tumult, were going forth from the city;

and their course seemed to lie about through the middle of the city toward the outer gate which faced the enemy, at which point the tumult became loudest and then dashed out. Those who sought the meaning of the sign were of the opinion that the god to whom Antony always most likened and attached himself was now deserting him. “

Antony’s god was of course Dionysus.

[bohemkokusu]

[eccedentesiastmusician]

Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης

[mariuccia]

Ηγεμών εκ Δυτικής Λιβύης

Άρεσε γενικώς στην Αλεξάνδρεια, στες δέκα μέρες που διέμεινεν αυτού, ο ηγεμών εκ Δυτικής Λιβύης Αριστομένης, υιός του Μενελάου. Ως τ’ όνομά του, κ’ η περιβολή, κοσμίως, ελληνική. Δέχονταν ευχαρίστως τες τιμές, αλλά δεν τες επιζητούσεν· ήταν μετριόφρων. Αγόραζε βιβλία ελληνικά, ιδίως ιστορικά και φιλοσοφικά. Προ πάντων δε άνθρωπος λιγομίλητος. Θάταν βαθύς στες σκέψεις, διεδίδετο, κ’ οι τέτοιοι τόχουν φυσικό να μη μιλούν πολλά.

Μήτε βαθύς στες σκέψεις ήταν, μήτε τίποτε. Ένας τυχαίος, αστείος άνθρωπος. Πήρε όνομα ελληνικό, ντύθηκε σαν τους Έλληνας, έμαθ’ επάνω, κάτω σαν τους Έλληνας να φέρεται· κ’ έτρεμεν η ψυχή του μη τυχόν χαλάσει την καλούτσικην εντύπωσι μιλώντας με βαρβαρισμούς δεινούς τα ελληνικά, κ’ οι Αλεξανδρινοί τον πάρουν στο ψιλό, ως είναι το συνήθειο τους, οι απαίσιοι.

Γι’ αυτό και περιορίζονταν σε λίγες λέξεις, προσέχοντας με δέος τες κλίσεις και την προφορά· κ’ έπληττεν ουκ ολίγον έχοντας κουβέντες στοιβαγμένες μέσα του.

ΚΑΒΑΦΗΣ

[skarfalwnontas-lexeis]