Τη γλώσσα μου έδωσαν ελληνική. Το σπίτι φτωχικό στις αμμουδιές του Ομήρου.

ΙΘΑΚΗ

Σὰ βγεῖς στὸν πηγαιμὸ γιὰ τὴν Ἰθάκη,
νὰ εὔχεσαι νά ῾ναι μακρὺς ὁ δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.

Τοὺς Λαιστρυγόνας καὶ τοὺς Κύκλωπας,
τὸν θυμωμένο Ποσειδῶνα μὴ φοβᾶσαι,
τέτοια στὸν δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δὲν θὰ βρεῖς,
ἂν μέν᾿ ἡ σκέψις σου ὑψηλή, ἂν ἐκλεκτὴ
συγκίνησις τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ τὸ σῶμα σου ἀγγίζει.

Τοὺς Λαιστρυγόνας καὶ τοὺς Κύκλωπας,
τὸν ἄγριο Ποσειδῶνα δὲν θὰ συναντήσεις,
ἂν δὲν τοὺς κουβανεῖς μὲς στὴν ψυχή σου,
ἂν ἡ ψυχή σου δὲν τοὺς στήνει ἐμπρός σου.

Νὰ εὔχεσαι νά ῾ναι μακρὺς ὁ δρόμος.
Πολλὰ τὰ καλοκαιρινὰ πρωινὰ νὰ εἶναι
ποῦ μὲ τί εὐχαρίστηση, μὲ τί χαρὰ
θὰ μπαίνεις σὲ λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους.

Νὰ σταματήσεις σ᾿ ἐμπορεῖα Φοινικικά,
καὶ τὲς καλὲς πραγμάτειες ν᾿ ἀποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια καὶ κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ᾿ ἔβενους,
καὶ ἡδονικὰ μυρωδικὰ κάθε λογῆς,
ὅσο μπορεῖς πιὸ ἄφθονα ἡδονικὰ μυρωδικά.

Σὲ πόλεις Αἰγυπτιακὲς πολλὲς νὰ πᾷς,
νὰ μάθεις καὶ νὰ μάθεις ἀπ᾿ τοὺς σπουδασμένους.
Πάντα στὸ νοῦ σου νά ῾χεις τὴν Ἰθάκη.
Τὸ φθάσιμον ἐκεῖ εἶν᾿ ὁ προορισμός σου.

Ἀλλὰ μὴ βιάζεις τὸ ταξίδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλὰ νὰ διαρκέσει.
Καὶ γέρος πιὰ ν᾿ ἀράξεις στὸ νησί,
πλούσιος μὲ ὅσα κέρδισες στὸν δρόμο,
μὴ προσδοκώντας πλούτη νὰ σὲ δώσει ἡ Ἰθάκη.

Ἡ Ἰθάκη σ᾿ ἔδωσε τ᾿ ὡραῖο ταξίδι.
Χωρὶς αὐτὴν δὲν θά ῾βγαινες στὸν δρόμο.
Ἄλλα δὲν ἔχει νὰ σὲ δώσει πιά.

Κι ἂν πτωχικὴ τὴν βρεῖς, ἡ Ἰθάκη δὲν σὲ γέλασε.
Ἔτσι σοφὸς ποὺ ἔγινες, μὲ τόση πεῖρα,
ἤδη θὰ τὸ κατάλαβες οἱ Ἰθάκες τὶ σημαίνουν.

Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης (Αλεξάνδρεια, 1863-1933)


Χαιρετισμούς στην Αλεξάνδρεια. Ας ξεχυθούν στους δρόμους οι λέξεις του ποιητή. Και τόσων άλλων ποιητών και φιλοσόφων, επιστημόνων και θεολόγων. Σε όλες τις γλώσσες στις οποίες εκφράσθηκαν. Καμιά βία. Μόνον λέξεις που θα συνωστισθούν η μια δίπλα στην άλλη και θα αναγκάσουν τη βία να παραιτηθεί.

29.1.2011: Sonne in Berlin. Nacht in Alexandrien.

Sonne in Berlin

Today Berlin woke up in sunlight. Such days (or moments) have to be kept in record. They are so rare in winter. How I do miss the light! Despite the weather, my love for Berlin is gradually deepening and the evolving Academia here nurtures my hope. More on this when the time is due.
May the New Year help you, if not define happiness, enrich your own happiness. We are all patiently waiting for "The Tree of Life", Terrence Malick's new film, an American guy I highly esteem. He first travelled to Oxford to write his thesis on "The World in Wittgenstein and Heidegger" under the supervision of Ryle, he then gave up philosophy (at least with Ryle) and made a new start creating films ("Badlands", "Days of Heaven", "The Red Thin Line", "The New World"). I divine his new one can be as good as "The Red Thin Line". There are many things I grant you, Michael, but not your opinion about his development: Malick is not going downhill. Let us wait and see. The ones who take "waiting" to be passive are blatantly wrong. There are sooo many things to be done in the meanwhile.
Now I shall delve into my busy-ness, or just continue my blog winter sleep. Just before the Aristotelian "sea-battle", I am writing on "The Reception of the Platonic Chora: Aristotelian Traces (?) in Alcinoic Physics". The question mark is at the appropriate place. Before the sea-battle I dare to claim the following two sentences are true and have always been true (?!):
Ed N. Lee is going to come over to Berlin this autumn.
The snow in Minneapolis is going to melt sooner this spring.
Que Sera, Sera... Warm greetings to Paris, my dear Georgiana: you happen to be the only one who knows how to read my ellipsis ;)

Nacht in Alexandrien

My dearest greetings I direct to you dear Riham and to dear Alexandria. While I am complaining about the weather and playing around in my warm chamber with necessities and freedoms and contingencies, you are revolting against the most repulsive compulsion you have been experiencing for real. I wish you the best possibility for tomorrow. I am afraid we are going to get acquainted with what had always been necessary for your tomorrow after some decades. My heart beats only for you all day long. My dearest melting pot of cultures, wake up in peace and freedom, find the power from within and show us further on what it means to integrate Otherness. May your past necessitate (sorry Aristotle) the future you deserve. For no-one and nothing in the world would I become a Stoic, not even for the sake of my education. But for you, dear Alexandria, for you I shall, I shall. Please make me believe in fate. Do so please. For you, I will.


Learn to live well, my friends, and live well, as far as this is possible.