Some of my favorite Poems and Quotes
ΙΘΑΚΗ
Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις,
αν μέν’ η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις,
αν δεν τους κουβανείς μες στην ψυχή σου,
αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου.
Να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος.
Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωιά να είναι
που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά
θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους·
να σταματήσεις σ’ εμπορεία Φοινικικά,
και τες καλές πραγμάτειες ν’ αποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ’ έβενους,
και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής,
όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά·
σε πόλεις Aιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας,
να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ’ τους σπουδασμένους.
Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί είν’ ο προορισμός σου.
Aλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει·
και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στον δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.
Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.
Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε.
Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν.
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.
| |
SELF Portrait, by David Whyte:
It doesn't interest me if there is one God or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need to change you.
If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand.
I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day,
with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted passion
of your sure defeat.
I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.
O ποιητής Rumi μας εκμυστηρεύεται:
Ιn your light I learned how to love.
In your beauty how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you, but sometimes I do
and that sight becomes this art!
Στο φως σου έμαθα ν' αγαπώ.
Στην ομορφιά σου να γράφω ποιήματα.
Χορεύεις στο στήθος μου,
Όπου κανείς δεν σε βλέπει,
εκτός από μένα κάποτε,
τότε που από το όραμα γεννιέται η τέχνη.
Long Ago Now
My old friend comes into my dream…
— Tu Fu
An old friend comes into my dream,
bright eyes searching me out in the darkness
We have walked this road many times before
These brown walls are faceless and familiar
We have never forgotten this cloudless night sky
Like old times, we go down to the river’s edge
Crouching, we scoop up the moonlight by handfuls,
bathing our faces in golden splashes
The water runs on but the light remains
Laughing, we wonder,
are dreaming or drunk or both..?
When the alarm goes off,
it recommences the daily and unending
war between sorrow and joy
Life carries on, but memory remains
Whenever Li Po and Tu Fu met,
they got drunk, and parted drunk
Later, they wrote poems about
the drunkenness and the partings,
always slipping in a river,
a moon or two, a dark road
How can we, who have only barely
begun to live, ignore the example
of these masters, already 1,400 years old?
Once, I roamed as I pleased, any excuse
to cross an ocean or continent,
taking my chances, seeing whoever
I wanted, throwing my cautions
to the slightest breeze
My door rang with the knocks
of other wandering souls
Now, the nights are mostly quiet
Though communication is instant,
you remain stubbornly far away
There isn’t even the chance
of getting drunk together
I swear, my friend, if I ever
again take to the open road,
I won’t stop
until the last moon
crosses the last river
-- Robert Anbian
by Emily Dickinson...
I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth, the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
Πέθανα για την Ομορφιά - και πάνω
Που βολεύτηκα στον τάφο,
Κάποιος που πέθανε για την Αλήθεια,
Ξαπλωτός στο διπλανό δωμάτιο -
Με ρώτησε ψιθυριστά, γιατί έπεσα...
«Για την Ομορφιά», απάντησα.
«Κι εγώ για την Αλήθεια--ένα τούτα τα δυό.
Είμαστε, Αδέρφια», είπε.
Κι έτσι, σαν συγγενείς, μιας νύχτας,
Τα λέγαμε απ' τα δώματά μας,
Ώσπου τα βρύα φτάσανε τα χείλη μας,
Και σκέπασαν τα ονόματά μας.
by Hafiz, a great Sufi master & poet.
NOW IS THE TIME
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you can finally live
With veracity
And love.
Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to deeply compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everyhing you do
Is sacred.
# #
THE UPANISHADS
Translated by Eknath Easwaran
Isha Upanishad
All this is full. All that is full.
From fullness, fullness comes.
When fullness is taken from fullness,
Fullness still remains.
The Self is everywhere. Bright is the Self,
Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise,
Immanent and transcendent. He it is
Who holds the cosmos together.
Katha Upanishad
There shines not the sun, neither moon nor star,
Nor flash of lightning, nor fire lit on earth.
The Self is the light reflected by all.
The Self shining, everything shines after him.
Brihadaranakya Upanishad
You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
Chandogya Upanishad
Lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
Manudukya Upanishad
Aum stands for the supreme Reality.
It is a symbol for what was, what is,
And what shall be. AUM represents also
What lies beyond past, present, and future.
THE BHAGAVAD GITA
Translated by Eknath Easwaran
Chapter 5: Renounce & Rejoice
Free from anger and selfish desire, unified
In mind, those follow the path of yoga and realize
The Self are established forever in the supreme state.
Closing their eyes, steadying their breathing, and
Focusing their attention on the center of spiritual
Consciousness, the wise master their senses,
Mind, and intellect through meditation. Self-
Realization is their only goal. Freed from selfish
Desire, fear, and anger, they live in freedom always.
Chapter 16: Two Paths
Be fearless and pure; never waver in your
determination or your dedication to the spiritual
life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful,
loving, and full of the desire to serve. Realize the
truth of the scriptures; learn to be detached and
to take joy in reununciation. Do not get angry or
harm any living creature, but be compassionate
and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor,
patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then,
Arjuna, you will achieve your divine destiny.
Other qualities, Arjuna, make a person more
and more inhuman: hypocrisy, arrogance,
conceit, anger, cruelty, ignorance.
The divine qualities lead to freedom; the demonic,
to bondage. But do not grieve, Arjuna,
you were born with divine attributes.
May we hear only what is good for all.
May we see only what is good for all.
May we serve you, Lord of Love, all our life.
May we be used to spread your peace on earth.
Isha Upanishad? Translated by: Eknath Easwaran
---------
Ειθε να ακουμε μονο οτι ειναι καλο για ολους.
Ειθε να βλεπουμε μονο οτι ειναι καλο για ολους.
Ειθε να σε υπηρετουμε, δυναμη της αγαπης, ολη μας τη ζωη,
Ειθε να υπηρετουμε παντα την ειρηνη στη γη.
Ισσα Ουπανισαδα. Μεταφραση: Eknath Easwaran
