09 dezembro 2007

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find the things like that on your way
as long as you keep thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.


Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony.
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy

6 comentários:

d. inês sequiosa disse...

é minha ideia ou estava aqui o the city?
(a versão francesa dos poemas do cavafy são tão mais reais)

8 e coisa 9 e tal disse...

estava, de facto, o 'the city'. deixou de estar. I need Ithaka on my mind.

quanto à versão em francês dos poemas de cavafy, desconheço. esta em inglês é a que conheço e gosto (escolhida entre algumas).

em português não encontrei ainda nenhuma versão que gostasse realmente.

Anónimo disse...

Walls

Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.

And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;

for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.

But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.
Imperceptibly they shut me from the outside world.

Constantine P. Cavafy

8 e coisa 9 e tal disse...

obrigada, anónimo.

Anónimo disse...

Agora sei que nada é fixo.
Há sempre um por fazer
há sempre outro partir depois de cada chegar.
Agora sei que para saber
é preciso rasgar as mãos.
E procurar.

Episódio I, Na ilha de Calipso, Um barco para Ítaca, Manuel Alegre

8 e coisa 9 e tal disse...

gostei, anónimo.