Home  ›  19th century Art  ›  20th century Art  ›  Art Quotes - Literature  ›  Greek Art
Textual description of firstImageUrl

Konstantinos Kavafis | La Città / Η Πόλις / The City

By Art periods and styles , , ,
Hai detto: "Andrò per altra terra ed altro mare.
Una città migliore di questa ci sarà.
Tutti gli sforzi sono condanna scritta. E qua
giace sepolto, come un morto, il cuore.
E fino a quando, in questo desolato languore?


Dove mi volgo, dove l’occhio giro,
macerie nere della vita miro,
ch’io non seppi, per anni, che perdere e schiantare".

Né terre nuove troverai, né nuovi mari.
Ti verrà dietro la città. Per le vie girerai:
le stesse. E negli stessi quartieri invecchierai,
ti farai bianco nelle stesse mura.

Perenne approdo, questa città. Per la ventura
nave non c e ne via - speranza vana!

La vita che schiantasti in questa tana
breve, in tutta la terra l’hai persa, in tutti i mari.


Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης | Η Πόλις

Είπες· «Θα πάγω σ’ άλλη γη, θα πάγω σ’ άλλη θάλασσα.
Μια πόλις άλλη θα βρεθεί καλλίτερη από αυτή.
Κάθε προσπάθεια μου μια καταδίκη είναι γραφτή·
κ’ είν’ η καρδιά μου - σαν νεκρός - θαμένη.
Ο νους μου ως πότε μες στον μαρασμόν αυτόν θα μένει.

Όπου το μάτι μου γυρίσω, όπου κι αν δω
ερείπια μαύρα της ζωής μου βλέπω εδώ,
που τόσα χρόνια πέρασα και ρήμαξα και χάλασα».


Καινούριους τόπους δεν θα βρεις, δεν θάβρεις άλλες θάλασσες.
Η πόλις θα σε ακολουθεί. Στους δρόμους θα γυρνάς
τους ίδιους. Και στες γειτονιές τες ίδιες θα γερνάς·

και μες στα ίδια σπίτια αυτά θ’ ασπρίζεις.
Πάντα στην πόλι αυτή θα φθάνεις. Για τα αλλού - μη ελπίζεις -
δεν έχει πλοίο για σε, δεν έχει οδό.

Έτσι που τη ζωή σου ρήμαξες εδώ
στην κώχη τούτη την μικρή, σ’ όλην την γη την χάλασες.


Konstantinos Kavafis | The City

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.

Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis / Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης (1863-1933), was a Greek poet, journalist, and civil servant from Alexandria.
A major figure of modern Greek literature, he is sometimes considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century.
His works and consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important contributors not only to Greek poetry, but to Western poetry as a whole.