Constantine Cavafy Quotes

We for the best will strive. And always more defective, more perplexing than before, shall all things fare; until, as in a mist, we stray bewildered. Then we shall desist. For in that helpless hour...

Constantine Cavafy

The Intervention of the Gods. Translated by John Cavafy.

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Of course many people will have much to say. We should listen. But we won't be deceived by words such as Indispensable, Unique, and Great. Someone else indispensable and unique and great can always...

Constantine Cavafy

When the Watchman Saw the Light - 1900.

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So let's not exaggerate. The light is good; and those coming are good, their words and actions also good. And let's hope all goes well. But Argos can do without the house of Atreus. Ancient houses...

Constantine Cavafy

When the Watchman Saw the Light - 1900.

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Now the longed-for signal has appeared. Yet when happiness comes it brings less joy than one expected. But at least we've gained this much: we've rid ourselves of hope and expectation.

Constantine Cavafy

When the Watchman Saw the Light - 1900

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As the shores of Ithaca gradually Faded away behind him And he sailed swiftly westward Toward Iberia and the Pillars of Hercules, Far from every Achaean sea, He felt he was alive once more, Freed...

Constantine Cavafy

Collected Poems - 1992, as translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard; edited by George Savidis, published online at The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. Second Odyssey - translated by Walter Kaiser.

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How much we’ll tell down there, how much, and how very different we’ll appear. What we protect here like sleepless guards, wounds and secrets locked inside us, protect with such great anxiety day...

Constantine Cavafy

Collected Poems - 1992, as translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard; edited by George Savidis, published online at The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. The Rest I Will Tell to Those Down to Hades.

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On hearing about powerful love, respond, be moved like an aesthete. Only, fortunate as you’ve been, remember how much your imagination created for you.

Constantine Cavafy

Collected Poems - 1992, as translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard; edited by George Savidis, published online at The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. On Hearing of Love.

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He was a quiet, gentle man, a man who loved peace (his country had suffered much from the wars of his predecessor), he behaved graciously toward everyone, humble and great alike. Never high-handed,...

Constantine Cavafy

Collected Poems - 1992, as translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard; edited by George Savidis, published online at The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. King Claudius - inspired by the story of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

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The greatest gods of our glorious Greece appeared before you. And if they left, don’t think for a minute that they were frightened by a gesture.

Constantine Cavafy

Collected Poems - 1992, as translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard; edited by George Savidis, published online at The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. Julian at the Mysteries.

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Later, in a more perfect society, someone else made just like me is certain to appear and act freely.

Constantine Cavafy

Collected Poems - 1992, as translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard; edited by George Savidis, published online at The Official Website of the Cavafy Archive. Hidden Things.

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