Comment 1 of 1, added on May 16th, 2005 at 11:50 PM.
Lawrence Durrel has a translation, presumably his own, in the first of his Alexandria Quartet. His version is the most lyrical I have read. I cannot help but think this is due to the years Lawrence spent in Alexandria where he sat out World War II. The city seems to take over the lives of the writers who spend time there.
Cavafy wrote in his poem, The City, his lament for the lost years spent in the city and dreams of escape but concludes that even upon fleeing the city for another better place, "There's no new land, my friend, no new sea; for the city will follow you, in the same streets you'll wander endlessly..."
This fate, suffered by Durrel gave him an insight to the fate of Antony, abandoned by his God. Antony, too, could never escape the city, the place where the Ptolomys played out their last gambets before the Roman's ended the line. Antony, as great a man as he was, lacked the heroic stature to escape.
Antony, like so many after him was ensnared in the city, the bit of Europe, an outpost of Greek thought on a continent whose winds swept accross the city, the heat of the Sahara bringing the lassitude of the continent, changing the ionic charge of the very air, brining with it madness, making escape impossible.
Antony is asked to put aside all illusions, all reasons to be used to obscure the truth. If he is to leave he must refrain from the excuses, he must pick up the Roman training, the Roman clarity in face of the fates his own actions have created.
Yes, the mystical city with its rapture has suspended reason, Antony can only look down and drink in the black rapture of this land of illusion. And then say, farewell Alexandria, say goodbye to Alexandria leaving.
Cavafy, a Greek, also ensnared in the black rapture of this city recognizes that it is too easy to excuse his life by blaming the city's power to hold him. Here he challenges the citizens of Alexandria to face their hand in their own ensnarement and like Cavafy, face the truth, abandoning unreason.
Gene Ferguson from
United States
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Lawrence Durrel has a translation, presumably his own, in the first of his Alexandria Quartet. His version is the most lyrical I have read. I cannot help but think this is due to the years Lawrence spent in Alexandria where he sat out World War II. The city seems to take over the lives of the writers who spend time there.
Cavafy wrote in his poem, The City, his lament for the lost years spent in the city and dreams of escape but concludes that even upon fleeing the city for another better place, "There's no new land, my friend, no new sea; for the city will follow you, in the same streets you'll wander endlessly..."
This fate, suffered by Durrel gave him an insight to the fate of Antony, abandoned by his God. Antony, too, could never escape the city, the place where the Ptolomys played out their last gambets before the Roman's ended the line. Antony, as great a man as he was, lacked the heroic stature to escape.
Antony, like so many after him was ensnared in the city, the bit of Europe, an outpost of Greek thought on a continent whose winds swept accross the city, the heat of the Sahara bringing the lassitude of the continent, changing the ionic charge of the very air, brining with it madness, making escape impossible.
Antony is asked to put aside all illusions, all reasons to be used to obscure the truth. If he is to leave he must refrain from the excuses, he must pick up the Roman training, the Roman clarity in face of the fates his own actions have created.
Yes, the mystical city with its rapture has suspended reason, Antony can only look down and drink in the black rapture of this land of illusion. And then say, farewell Alexandria, say goodbye to Alexandria leaving.
Cavafy, a Greek, also ensnared in the black rapture of this city recognizes that it is too easy to excuse his life by blaming the city's power to hold him. Here he challenges the citizens of Alexandria to face their hand in their own ensnarement and like Cavafy, face the truth, abandoning unreason.
Gene Ferguson from United States