Compliments to Stratis Haviaras and thank you Rebecca for sending them over.
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
The aim of the poet is to awaken emotions in the soul, not to gather
admirers.
Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rebecca Seiferle" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 7:07 PM
Subject: Haviaras translation
Someone, who has previously been able to only read Cavafy in the Greek
finding
the English translations somehow impassable, sent me a couple of
translations
by Stratis Haviaras from his new translation of Cavafy's _The Canon_. I'm
not
sure about getting the book here, though it may be more readily available in
the
UK, and will be out here in the near future. So a sample from the Haviaras
translation.
best,
Rebecca
He Vows
Every so often he vows to lead a better life.
But when night comes again bearing its own counsel,
and its own allowances and its assurances,
when night comes again with its own energies,
he falls back, beaten down, back to the deadly joy.
For Them To Be Summoned
One candle is enough. Its gentle light
is more fitting, it will be more seemly
when the Shadows come, the Shadows of love.
One candle is enough. Tonight the room
must not have too much light. In deep reverie
and evocation, and in that subtle light,
here in the grip of deep reverie, I will conjure visions
so that the Shadows may come, the shadows of love.
trans. Stratis Haviaras
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