1227: The City | Constantine P. Cavafy

[exceptindreams]

"The City

Comments

[browngirl]

I haVE always loved this one, and always striven to not fall into it.

[two_grey_rooms]

well then! that was depressing as fuck.

[cougarfang]

To me this poem (especially the second stanza) has a similar tone and cadence to the apocryphal Roman tombstone:

Do not pass by my epitaph, traveler.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
No caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
Have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
Lest even while dead I seem loquacious to you.

[clodia_metelli]

Wonderful. I keep meaning to get around to trying Cavafy, and now maybe I will.

[bubblingbeebles]

This city will always pursue you

"the present moment never leaves you; it is you who leaves the present moment."