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Original text - Engleski - The City-kavafis

Current statusOriginal text
This text is available in the following languages: EngleskiKineski pojednostavljeni

Category Poetry

Title
The City-kavafis
Text to be translated
Submitted by Mideia
Source language: Engleski

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 -like something dead- lies buried.
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 neighbourhoods, turn grey 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.
Remarks about the translation
It's a poem of a famous greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy.Maybe you can find it somewhere already translated,as I found the english one...
26 September 2008 12:13