Konstantin Kavafis

Momento Caras: era dele o poema (Ithaca) lido no enterro da Jackie O! O que isto significa, não tenho nenhuma noção! Mas o legal é conhecer o trabalho deste grego, que nasceu e morreu no dia 29 de abril (estas datas têm de significar alguma coisa!!)

Hidden Things

From all I did and all I said

let no one try to find out

who I was.

An obstacle was there

that changed the pattern of my actions

and the manner of my life.

An obstacle was often there

to stop me

when I'd begin to speak.

From my most unnoticed actions,my most veiled writing

-from these alone

will I be understood.

But maybe it isn't worth

so much concern,

so much effort to discover

who I really am.

Later, in a more perfect society,someone else

made just like meis certain to appear and act freely.

E, para não ficarem dizendo que eu não explico, só lanço sementes em solo infértil, salgado, segue o Ithaca...

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and 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 the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen 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 gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
 
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
 
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not 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 will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Sei que alguns preferiam a tradução, mas estas já são traduções, já que o original, para mim, é grego....(Ainda vou acabar preso por causa dessas piadinhas....). Konstantin Kavafis escreveu pouquíssimo, acho que são apenas 140 ou 150 poemas, que ele revisava durante toda a vida, sem nunca aceitar uma forma final...ótimo..

O mito de Ulisses diz mais respeito à viagem e sua motivação do que à aventura, às peripécias. Grego não escrevia, grego analisava, subvertia, metaforizava (ainda vou virar político) e nem sempre o herói semi-deus preenche os requisitos básicos do nosso imaginário de herói...Muitas vezes, a essência está na capacidade de tomar a decisão, ficando esta e suas consequências em total segundo plano. Decidiu, está feito!!that's my motto... e, seguindo o conselho do poeta, eu "keep Ithaca always in my mind, ...but do not hurry the journey at all." Não é bom???