Περιμένοντας τους βαρβάρους, Κωνσταντίνου Καβάφη

— Τι περιμένουμε στην αγορά συναθροισμένοι;

— Είναι οι βάρβαροι να φθάσουν σήμερα.

— Γιατί μέσα στην Σύγκλητο μια τέτοια απραξία;
  Τι κάθοντ’ οι Συγκλητικοί και δεν νομοθετούνε;

— Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα.
        Τι νόμους πια θα κάμουν οι Συγκλητικοί;
        Οι βάρβαροι σαν έλθουν θα νομοθετήσουν.

—Γιατί ο αυτοκράτωρ μας τόσο πρωί σηκώθη,
 και κάθεται στης πόλεως την πιο μεγάλη πύλη
 στον θρόνο επάνω, επίσημος, φορώντας την κορώνα;

— Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα.
        Κι ο αυτοκράτωρ περιμένει να δεχθεί
        τον αρχηγό τους. Μάλιστα ετοίμασε
        για να τον δώσει μια περγαμηνή. Εκεί
        τον έγραψε τίτλους πολλούς κι ονόματα.

— Γιατί οι δυο μας ύπατοι κ’ οι πραίτορες εβγήκαν
 σήμερα με τες κόκκινες, τες κεντημένες τόγες·
 γιατί βραχιόλια φόρεσαν με τόσους αμεθύστους,
 και δαχτυλίδια με λαμπρά, γυαλιστερά σμαράγδια·
 γιατί να πιάσουν σήμερα πολύτιμα μπαστούνια
 μ’ ασήμια και μαλάματα έκτακτα σκαλιγμένα;

— Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα·
και τέτοια πράγματα θαμπώνουν τους βαρβάρους.

—Γιατί κ’ οι άξιοι ρήτορες δεν έρχονται σαν πάντα
 να βγάλουνε τους λόγους τους, να πούνε τα δικά τους;

— Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα·
     κι αυτοί βαρυούντ’ ευφράδειες και δημηγορίες.

— Γιατί ν’ αρχίσει μονομιάς αυτή η ανησυχία
 κ’ η σύγχυσις. (Τα πρόσωπα τι σοβαρά που εγίναν).
 Γιατί αδειάζουν γρήγορα οι δρόμοι κ’ η πλατέες,
 κι όλοι γυρνούν στα σπίτια τους πολύ συλλογισμένοι;

— Γιατί ενύχτωσε κ’ οι βάρβαροι δεν ήλθαν.
        Και μερικοί έφθασαν απ’ τα σύνορα,
        και είπανε πως βάρβαροι πια δεν υπάρχουν.

 Και τώρα τι θα γένουμε χωρίς βαρβάρους.
 Οι άνθρωποι αυτοί ήσαν μια κάποια λύσις.

on summer breeze...

"I saw your face; and I felt dizzy and wept, for my eyes had seen that secret and conjectured object whose name is common to all men but which no man has looked upon — the unimaginable universe."
The Aleph: J. L. Borges 
by courtesy of http://thefloatinglibrary.com/2008/07/17/the-aleph/


An astonishing text! 
Wandering in the maze of literature, thanks to the Net, one might stumble upon crude or refined diamonds... 

The missing brick

Not feeling very well this morning I stayed several hours in, lying on my couch, doing some web-surfing and reading my 2-reasons favourite book. I uploaded some more segments from it in my blog and here is another one that, at the moment, drawn my attention:

“Once, when I and my wife were travelling, I received a fax from my secretary.

‘There’s one glass brick missing for the work on the kitchen renovation’, she said. ‘I’m sending you the original plan as well as the plan the builder has come up with to compensate for it.’

On the one hand, there was the design my wife had made: harmonious lines of bricks with an opening for ventilation. On the other, there was the plan drawn up to resolve the problem of the missing brick: a real jigsaw puzzle in which the glass squares were arranged in a high-gledy-piggledy fashion that defied aesthetics.

‘Just buy another brick,’ wrote my wife. And so they did, and thus stuck to the original design.

That afternoon, I thought for a long time about what had happened; how often, for the lack of one brick, we completely distort the original plan of our lives.”

(Paulo Coelho’s Like the flowing river)

... and God created the mother!

When I started this blog one of the texts I had chosen to post was Coelho's story in Greek as it was a gift to me from my daughters.
Today I found the English version via Facebook from the author's blog: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/05/08/character-of-the-week-the-mother/

I was surprised by the fact that he calls the angel as female...

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into his sixth day of “overtime” when an angel appeared and said:
“You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order?

* She has to be completely washable, but not plastic;
* Have 180 movable parts… all replaceable;
* Run on black coffee and leftovers;
* Have a lap that disappears when she stands up;
* A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair;
* And six pairs of hands.”

The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands… no way.”

“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord. “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel.

The Lord nodded.
“One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ’What are you kids doing in there?’
“Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know.
“And of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ’I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”

“Lord,” said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, “Go to bed. Tomorrow…”

“I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick
“…can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger
“… and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.”

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.

“But she’s tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.”

“Can she think?”

“Not only can she think, but she can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.
“There’s a leak,” she said. “I told You were trying to push too much into this model.”

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.”

“What’s it for?”

“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”

And the Mother was created – a work of genius.

social animals

We know the rules of community; we know the healing effect of community in terms of individual lives. If we could somehow find a way across the bridge of our knowledge, would not these same rules have a healing effect upon our world?
We human beings have often been referred to as social animals. But we are not yet community creatures.
We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom, equality, and love of genuine community.
It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail parties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries. It is our task—our essential, central, crucial task—to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceed.

Scott Peck: The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace.

asynchronous timing

By the time you open a letter of mine and accept its truth, I am already somewhere else. When I read your letters, I am actually inside a moment of yours that has passed; I am with you inside a time you are no longer inhabiting. This works out to each of us being faithful to each other’s abandoned moments. . .
(Grossman, D, 2002: be my knife)

Salvador Dali's melting watch

μμμ ... αν δεν κοιτάζω εσένα

"red lips I kissed..."

I kissed red lips
and they painted mine, red lips

On the handkerchief I dragged my lips
and they painted the handkerchief, red lips

In the river I washed it
and it painted its waters, red lips

The sea shore was painted
the middle of the ocean too, red lips

An eagle came down to drink water
and his wings were painted, red lips

He painted half the sun
and the moon completely, red lips

I kissed red lips
and they painted mine, red lips...

A lovely traditional song, performed by a modern artist, Alkinoos Ioannidis.(the lyrics are in a loose version, show leniency)