The city

C. P. CAVAFY

Translated by Peter Green

Photo by Theo Bandelis

You said: “I’ll find a new land, find another sea—

A new city’ll turn up, a better one than this.

Every effort I make is condemned, turns out amiss,

While my heart, like a corpse, lies buried deep,

And my mind—how long will my mind stay sunk in stagnant

sleep?

Here, wherever I look, wherever I turn my gaze I see the blackened wreck of all my days,

So many years spent, ruined, lost by me.”

By Alba_Grm

There are no new places you’ll find, you’ll catch no other tide. This city will follow you. The streets you tread

Will be the same, it’s in these same houses your head

Will turn grey, in the same neighborhoods that you’ll age. Always you’ll end up in this city. Don’t hope to turn the page To an Elsewhere for which there’s no ship for you, no road

shows clear.

Just as you destroyed your life back here

In this tiny retreat, so you ruined it world-wide.

By Theo Bandelis

The City

C. P. CAVAFY

Translated by Peter Green