THE CITY -Konstantinos Kavafy
THE CITY
You said “ I’ll go to some other land, will cross another sea.
Another city will be found better than this.
Each of my efforts here a condemnation foretold
and, as if something dead, my heart lies buried.
How long can my mind dwell in this decay?
Wherever I will turn my eye, all that I see,
are only blackened ruins of my life here
that for so many years I’ve spent and wasted and destroyed ”.
You will not find another land, won’t find other seas.
The city will follow you. You’ll walk the same streets,
the same neighbourhoods will see you growing old
and in these same houses you’ll turn grey.
You’ll always arrive to this city. For somewhere else,
nurture no hope. There is no ship for you, there is no road.
The way you’ve ruined your life here, in this small
corner, you have ruined it everywhere.