Friday, September 30, 2005

Else Lasker-Schüler

WENN DU KOMMST

Wollen wir den Tag im Kelch der Nacht verstecken,
Denn wir sehnen uns nach Nacht.
Goldene Sterne sind unsere Leiber,
Die wollen sich küssen - küssen.

Spürst du den Duft der schlummernden Rosen
Über die dunklen Rasen -
So soll unsere Nacht sein.
Küssen wollen sich unsere goldenen Leiber.

Immer sinke ich in Nacht zur Nacht.
Alle Himmel blühen dicht von funkelnder Liebe.
Küssen wollen sich unsere Leiber, küssen - küssen.

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note: its a quick post have to leave for work and couldnt find a english translation

My Moogie Moon

To Be Great, Be Entire

To be great, be entire: of what's yours nothing
        Exaggerate or exclude.
Be whole in each thing. Put all that you are
        Into the least you do.
Like that    on each place    the whole moon
        Shines, for she lives aloft.

(14.2.33)



Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Cavafy - Ithaka




ITHAKA

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

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btw the picture above is actually Dionysos by Exekias. You can read about that story in the Homeric Hymns. But i like the "Cylix" so much just like the poem which i found in a complete work of the greek poet Cavafy. Of course i read it in dutch and just picked a english version from the net maby someone can find a better version somewhere then please let me know. My english is not that good.

hmm and i think there is no difference in physical traveling and travel in mind for the one who can dream and find. Because all goes through the mind and all is in you.