Selected writings, notes, and reflections.
The city we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day; yet, whether such a city exists or ever will exist makes no difference, for it is the only city in whose politics a wise person would wish to engage. He will live in it as a model, laid up in heavens, and will act in accordance with it within himself, not concerning him- self with the cities of this world.
From The Shape of Thought
The blazest revolution comes when you protect your dignity,
when you refuse to play along,
when you choose not to live in falseness,
when is not noise, spectacle, dogma or "anarchy"
but a silent strength of living Attentively!..
From my notes
Although this Reason (logos) holds forever, men fail to comprehend it, both before they have heard it and even after hearing it for the first time. For, although all things come about according to this Reason (logos), men are like the untried when they attempt such words and works as I set forth, distinguishing each according to its nature and explaining how it is ordered. And some men are as ignorant of what they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they do when asleep.
From The Shape of Thought
Without ever knowing it, he wept—
maybe because he had to weep,
maybe because the sorrows are coming…
There are some horrible returns;
there’s a mighty iron fist in the sky,
which does not crush us, but punishes,
and relentlessly bears us down…
I have some broken wings...
I don't even know why
this summer came.
For which hopeless bliss,
for which loves,
for what dreamy journey?..
The sea swells as if she's rising high
and by wetting the morning sand,
she whispers to me about a familiar shore..,
she whispers tales of a life, my soul once bore…
From Karyotakis: Selected Poems
And if you cannot make your life the way you want it,
this at least, try to do
as much as you can: do not demean it
by too much contact with the crowd,
by too much movement and talk.
Do not demean it, by dragging it along,
by parading it around and exposing it,
to the social relations and connections
the daily foolishness—
until it becomes like a stranger, burdensome.
From C.P. Cavafy: Selected Poems
...So much darkness may not dwell there—Oh God—
amidst the night, where despair roams the places,
upon the dreadful firmament, and in the wind's hollow cry,
in the gazes, in the words of people...
To be nothing, nothing anymore, but only a little
joy and satisfaction to remain...
And everyone will speak as if they’re gone forever,
everyone, as if they were dead…
From Karyotakis: Selected Poems
Near the bright-lit window of a tobacconist,
they were standing among the crowd.
Their eyes met by chance,
and softly, falteringly, confessed
the forbidden longing of their flesh...
Then, a few nervous steps along the pavement—
until they smiled, and slightly nodded...
And then, at last, the closed carriage…
the sensuous nearing of their bodies,
the entwined hands, the joined lips…
From C.P. Cavafy: Selected Poems
Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds on which you have lain,
but also those desires that for you,
gleamed brightly in the eyes,
and trembled in the voice—and some
chance obstacle interrupted them…
Now that everything is in the past,
it almost seems as if you gave yourself
to those desires, too—how they shone,
remember, in the eyes that sparkled at you...
How they trembled in the voice, for you, body, remember...
From C.P. Cavafy: Selected Poems
Alas for human destiny! People’s happiest hours are pictures drawn in shadow...
— Aeschylus
The saddest aspect of life is that there is no one on earth whose happiness is such that he won't sometimes wish he were dead rather than alive...
— Herodotus
In every abundance coexist emptiness.
— Hippocrates
All cruelty springs from weakness...
— Seneca
The best revenge is not to become like the wrong-doer.
— Marcus Aurelius
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
— Shakespeare
If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favour...
— Voltaire
From The Shape of Thought
In this fleeting hour, a withered laurel leaf will fall,
revealing the pretext of your life, and you’ll be exposed;
you will feel like a leafless tree
where in the middle of the road, faced the winter, all alone...
And since it will be too late to create new chimeras,
or even a frivolous and conventional joy,
you will open the window for the last time,
and, looking back on your whole life quietly, you'll smile...
From Karyotakis: Selected Poems