Kavafis ('this city will always follow you')

""I can't say I know much about poetry," Evgenia replied. "I have heard of a poet called Kavafis, though. He was Greek. I don't know if you..."
Yekta's eyes lit up.
"Why, Madam, he was a poet of the highest order."
"My grandfather knew some of his relatives; they used to live in Istanbul. It was my grandfather who introduced me to his poetry."
"Well, it's sublime." He was in the mood now. He cleared his throat and began a recital. "This city will always follow you / You'll walk the same streets / Grow old in the same neighbourhoods / Turn grey in the same houses / It's this city you'll always end up in / Don't hope for any other place..."
Ahmet Ümit em A Memento for Istanbul.
- -

THE CITY
Constantino Kavafis

You said, "I will go to another land, I will go to another sea.
Another city shall be found better than this.
Each one of my endeavors is condemned by fate;
my heart lies buried like a corpse.
How long in this disintegration can the mind remain.
Wherever I turn my eyes, wherever I gaze,
I see here only the black ruins of my life
where I have spent so many years, and ruined and wrecked myself."

New places you shall never find, you'll not find other seas.
The city still shall follow you. You'll wander still
in the same streets, you'll roam in the same neighborhoods,
in these same houses you'll turn gray.
You'll always arrive at this same city. Don't hope for somewhere
else;
no ship for you exists, no road exists.
Just as you've ruined your life here, in this
small corner of earth, you've wrecked it now the whole world
through.
(daqui)

ou

The City

You said, "I will go to another land, I will go to another sea.
Another city will be found, better than this.
Every effort of mine is condemned by fate;
and my heart is -- like a corpse -- buried.
How long in this wasteland will my mind remain.
Wherever I turn my eyes, wherever I may look
I see the black ruins of my life here,
where I spent so many years, and ruined and wasted."

New lands you will not find, you will not find other seas.
The city will follow you. You will roam the same
streets. And you will age in the same neighborhoods;
in these same houses you will grow gray.
Always you will arrive in this city. To another land -- do not hope --
there is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you have ruined your life here
in this little corner, you have destroyed it in the whole world.


Kavafis, Cavafy, “from Constantinople by descent, but born in Alexandria.”


"Cavafy came to Istanbul when he was only 19 and stayed with relatives in the Bosphorus suburb of Yeniköy for three years. How much the cosmopolitan Istanbul of late Ottoman times influenced his development as a poet and as a man has been a matter of hot literary debate. For the Istanbul Rums, he is a son of an Istanbulite Rum family and remained so until the end." (daqui)