The City (poem)

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The Alexandrian poet Cafavy is mentioned by Lawrence Durrell in his book "Justine" (Faber and Faber, 1957).

The narrator of Justine refers to his translation of the poem "The City" as "by no means literal" (page 221).

The City

You tell yourself: I'll be gone

To some other land, some other sea,

To a city lovelier far than this

Could ever have been or hoped to be

Where every step now tightens the noose

A heart in a body buried and out of use

How long, how long must I be here

Confined among these dreary purlieus

Of the common mind? Wherever now I look

Black ruins of my life rise into view

So many years have I been here

Spending and squandering and nothing gained

There's no new land, my friend, no

New sea; for the city will follow you

In the same streets you'll wander endlessly

The same mental suburbs slip from youth to age

In the same house go white at last

The city is a cage.

No other places, always this

Your earthly landfall, and no ship exists

To take you from yourself. Ah, don't you see

Just as you've ruined your life in this

One plot of ground you've ruined its worth

Everywhere now - over the whole earth?