George Seferis
I prefer it by moonlight – George Seferis, tr. by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, from “In the Kyrenia District,” The Collected Poems 1924-1955 ( Princeton University Press; 1st edition, January 1, 1971)
Category: Greek Literature
Sophokles
Elektra : I ask this one thing: / let me go mad in my own way. — Sophokles, Electra (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) Trans. Anne Carson (Oxford University Press, April 19, 2001)
Nikos Kazantzakis
This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a… Continue reading Nikos Kazantzakis
Giorgos Seferis
If I ’m sorry, it’s a private matterlike the feeling for things so simplethat, as they say, one’s passed beyond them; —Giorgos Seferis, from “Notes for a ‘Week’,” Collected Poems (Princeton University Press, 1969)
Nikos Kazantzakis
I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me. — Nikos Kazantzakis, from “The Preparation : Second Duty,” The Saviors of God. (Simon & Schuster March 15, 1960) Originally published January 1st 1901.
Giorgos Seferis
Your eyes, watching, would be beautiful,your eyes, reaching out, would glow,your lips would come alive, as they used to,at such a miracle;you were searching for itwhat were you looking for in front of ashesor in the rain in the fog in the windeven when the lights were growing dimand the city was sinking and on… Continue reading Giorgos Seferis
Aeschylus
Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forgetfalls drop by drop upon the heart,until, in our own despair,against our will,comes wisdomthrough the awful grace of God. — Aeschylus as quoted by Robert F. Kennedy in his speech announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
C.P. Cavafy
Like beautiful bodies of the dead who had not grown oldand they shut them, with tears, in a brilliant mausoleum,with roses at the head and jasmine at the feet —this is what desires resemble that have passedwithout fulfillment; without any of them having achieveda night of sensual delight, or a morning of brightness. ― C.P.… Continue reading C.P. Cavafy
George Seferis
You spoke of things they didn’t see:they laughed But to row the dark riverwith the current against youto go blindly an obstinate travellerby the unknown roadand to seek words out rootedlike the knotted olive trunk—leave them to laugh.And to long for the other world to inhabitthe suffocating loneliness of our daysin this vanished present—leave them.… Continue reading George Seferis
Nikos Kazantzakis
I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me. — Nikos Kazantzakis, from “The Preparation : Second Duty,” The Saviors of God. (Simon & Schuster March 15, 1960) Originally published January 1st 1901.
The Vale of Soul-Making 