By Constantine P. Cavafy
Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
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.
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My Wednesday was virtually social. Only Kay could come to chat this morning, but we were on for an hour and a half talking anyway. Then I had lunch, did a bit of work, and watched the middle third of the extended Fellowship of the Ring with Kristen and Laurie. It was a pretty afternoon for walking to the park and meeting some ducks.
We had pumpkin samosa chaat for dinner and watched the season finale of Gen V, which as expected was violent but satisfying. Now that I've finished the book, we're watching the start of The City & the City, which is not entirely faithful but well done visually and well cast -- more after we've finished it. From North Creek Park last weekend:
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