This afternoon, I picked up a book at a lovely bookstore hidden in the midst of Oia’s endless gravel path. It was a poetry book called “A Greek Quintet”, an anthology of poems by Cavafy, Sikelianos, Seferis, Elytis and Gatsos. A few hours later, I found myself stranded in a small patisserie overlooking the Aegean sea, enjoying a huge cup of pistachio ice cream and the fruity-sweet Vinsanto wine. I flipped open several first few pages of the poetry book, and my eyes landed instantly on The City. If you do believe that there’s no such thing as coincidence in life, then I’d like to share this poem with you.
The City by Cavafy
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 lies buried as though it were something dead.
How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?
Wherever I turn, wherever I happen to 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 will walk
the same streets, grow old in the same neighbourhoods,
will turn grey in these same houses.
You will always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things
elsewhere;
there is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,
you’ve destroyed it everywhere else in the world.
No matter how far one goes (or runs away for that matter), one will always meet oneself again and again and again and again.
αγάπη, H.
20 Responses
Arghhh….. jadi inget perjalanan saya sendiri, datang dan berakhir di tempat yang sama… Hi Hani, miss U there…
Miss u, too! :’)
suka foto2nya (yang diupload di FB) tempatnya sepertinya memang keren abisss….
thank you! 🙂 tempatnya cantik! banget!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… ajak akuuuuuuuu…. 😆
Yuk, aku mau balik lagi ke sini, Chi. Nggak mau pulang, nih. Betah banget T___T
Ouch.. That’s the good poem! I like it 🙂
Reblogged this on Wishstory.
Reblogged this on janponce92 and commented:
i am quite attracted with the poem complimented with a beautiful picturesque! 😀
Synchronicity indeed! Your beautiful posts on Santorini and traveling alone have made me ache to follow in your footsteps. I love the poem and I love your photographs, and in the past months, I have begun to feel the need to do exactly what you’ve done, go off on an adventure by myself. You’ve inspired me!
omg! i really love ur post. i wish u could post more about how to get there from indonesia. im planning to visit greece in 3 years. and ur bloq is incredibly great!
Hey! From Indonesia, I took the flight to Dubai and from Dubai to Athena, then from Athena to Santorini. You can also choose to fly via Frankfurt if I’m not mistaken 🙂
im travelling to santorini alone in 2 weeks! love the blog
Yaaaay! If you happen to pass by Petros in Oia (find Alexandros) or Villa Evgenia in Fira (find George), say hello to them for me 🙂