De Griekse dichter Konstantínos Petros Kaváfis werd geboren te Alexandrië (Egypte) op 29 april 1863. Zie ook alle tags voor Konstantínos Petros Kaváfis op dit blog.
In the Same Space
The setting of houses, cafés, the neighborhood
that I’ve seen and walked through years on end:
I created you while I was happy, while I was sad,
with so many incidents, so many details.
And, for me, the whole of you has been transformed into feeling.
Vertaald door Edmund Keeley
Caesarion
In part to verify a date,
and in part just to pass the time,
last night I picked up a volume
of Ptolemaic inscriptions and began reading.
Those endless poems of praise and flattery
all sound the same. All the men are brilliant,
great and good, mighty benefactors;
most wise in all their undertakings.
The same for the women of the dynasty, all the Berenices
and Cleopatras, wonderful, each and every one.
When I managed to find the date in question,
I’d have put the book aside had a brief mention
of King Caesarion, an insignificant note really,
not suddenly caught my eye…
Ah, there you stood, with that vague
charm of yours. And since history has devoted
just a few lines to you, I had more freedom
to fashion you in my mind’s eye…
I made you handsome, capable of deep feeling.
My art gave your face an appealing,
dreamlike beauty. In fact, I imagined you
so vividly last night, that when my lamp
went out—I let it go out on purpose—
I actually thought you had come into my room;
you were there, standing before me,
just as you would have looked in defeated Alexandria,
pale and tired, ideal in your sorrow,
still hoping for mercy from those vicious men
who kept on whispering ’too many Caesars.’
Vertaald door Avi Sharon
The Next Table
He can’t be more than twenty-two.
And yet I’m certain it was at least that many years ago
that I enjoyed the very same body.
This isn’t some erotic fantasy.
I’ve only just come into the casino
and there hasn’t been time enough to drink.
I tell you, that’s the very same body I once enjoyed.
And if I can’t recall precisely where—that means nothing.
Now that he’s sitting there at the next table,
I recognize each of his movements—and beneath his clothes
I see those beloved, naked limbs again.
Vertaald door Avi Sharon
De Duitse dichteres en essayiste Monika Rinck werd geboren op 29 april 1969 in Zweibrücken. Zie ook alle tags voor Monika Rinck op dit blog.
vijver
zegt hij: het leed is een vijver.
zeg ik: ja, leed is een vijver.
omdat het leed door vissen doorschoten
in een trog ligt en bedorven ruikt.
zegt hij: en de schuld is een vijver.
zeg ik: ja, de schuld ook vijver,
omdat de schuld in een verzakking klotst
en mij al met mijn arm omhoog
tot aan de gestrekte oksel reikt.
zegt hij: de leugen is een vijver.
Ik zeg: ja de leugen eveneens vijver.
Omdat men in de zomer ‘s nachts
op de oever van de leugen picknicken kan
en daar altijd iets vergeet.
Vertaald door Frans Roumen
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 29e april ook mijn blog van 29 april 2019.