You won't find a new country, won't find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You'll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.
You'll always end up in this city. Don't hope for things elsewhere:
there's no ship for you, there's no road.
C.P. Cavafy
Translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard
Note: Quoting out of context, I know. The poem in full here.
i love the poetry of constantine cavafy too, and love quoting it all over the place...and mostly out of context as well. what fun!(poetry is so much more enigmatic when it is quoted out of context methinks)
ReplyDeletethere is a beautiful harmony in the grays of old places that a skilled photographer can exploit endlessly. well done!
this reminds me of a cartier-bresson. i'm trying to think which...
ReplyDeletelovely!
Zuma: You know this was probably the first Cavafy poem I read and it is also probably my favourite. These lines always remind me of how obsessed I have been with a particular city for such a long time. And I don't take that in a negative sense. The poem as a whole is so much more bleak, and has a much different meaning.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you re the photo!
space bar: wow, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about any picture I have taken...now you must tell me which cartier-bresson
" These lines always remind me of how obsessed I have been with a particular city for such a long time."
ReplyDeleteAnd aint we all thankful for that. :)
Some of my favorite cartier-bresson(s)..
http://misspixiedust.blogspot.com/2006/11/true-blue-bresson-ian.html
Well, this is not the one I meant, but it's one of my all-time favourite H C-B's.
ReplyDelete(thanks Salil)
The picture's great, and that poem is chilling.
ReplyDeleteThat shot actually reminds me of the gallis of Banaras...
salil: It's very nice to have you back and all - it would be even better if you didn't disappear this time :P
ReplyDeletespace bar: My favourite is this one :D
km: I am actually hoping to go to Banaras sometime in oct/ nov... I have been wanting to visit to take photographs for a very long time now but its never worked out so I am keeping my fingers crossed for this time.
The surroundings of home, centers, neighorhood
ReplyDeletewhich I see and where I walk; for years and years
:)
Now, I can't wait for my trip!
-Schez
www.suburbannoisemachine.wordpress.com
I wonder,do you just know? When you're taking that picture?
ReplyDeletehi szerelem, I thought this too, that the lines are bleak but that for you they must have a different meaning because I know of your obsession with cities. and the photograph is not bleak either, on the contrary.
ReplyDeleteNow now don't you go pullig a houdini again?
ReplyDeleteszerelem, just thought to say hi :-)
ReplyDeleteare you still there?