GRÉCIA

Going Back Home from Greece

Well, we’re nearly there, Hermippos.

Day after tomorrow, it seems—that’s what the captain said.

At least we’re sailing our seas,

the waters of Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt,

the beloved waters of our home countries.

Why so silent? Ask your heart:

didn’t you too feel happier

the farther we got from Greece?

What’s the point of fooling ourselves?

That would hardly be properly Greek. 

 

It’s time we admitted the truth:

we are Greeks also—what else are we?—

but with Asiatic affections and feelings,

affections and feelings

sometimes alien to Hellenism. 

 

It isn’t right, Hermippos, for us philosophers

to be like some of our petty kings

(remember how we laughed at them

when they used to come to our lectures?)

who through their showy Hellenified exteriors,

Macedonian exteriors (naturally),

let a bit of Arabia peep out now and then,

a bit of Media they can’t keep back.

And to what laughable lengths the fools went

trying to cover it up! 

 

No, that’s not at all right for us.

For Greeks like us that kind of pettiness won’t do.

We must not be ashamed

of the Syrian and Egyptian blood in our veins;

we should really honor it, take pride in it.

Tróia, Esmirna, Éfeso, Mileto. O mundo grego na Ásia Menor. A moeda do leão, cunhada na Lídia. No meio de tanta confusão quase nos esquecemos que o nascimento da moeda foi uma criação helénica.

Não encontrei tradução portuguesa para este poema de Kavafis. Mas é com melancolia que leio a frase "the beloved waters of our home countries". Que trará o dia de amanhã?

Ver: http://www.cavafy.com