Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης, «Σοφοί δε προσιόντων». Constantine P. Cavafy. “But The Wise Perceive Things About To Happen”

Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918), The Reader (c 1885), oil on canvas, 31 × 38 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain. Wikimedia Commons.

Θεοί μεν γαρ μελλόντων, άνθρωποι δε γιγνομένων,

σοφοί δε προσιόντων αισθάνονται.

Φιλόστρατος, Τα ες τον Τυανέα Aπολλώνιον, VΙΙΙ, 7

Οι άνθρωποι γνωρίζουν τα γινόμενα.

Τα μέλλοντα γνωρίζουν οι θεοί,

πλήρεις και μόνοι κάτοχοι πάντων των φώτων.

Εκ των μελλόντων οι σοφοί τα προσερχόμενα

αντιλαμβάνονται. Η ακοή

αυτών κάποτε εν ώραις σοβαρών σπουδών

ταράττεται. Η μυστική βοή

τούς έρχεται των πλησιαζόντων γεγονότων.

Και την προσέχουν ευλαβείς. Ενώ εις την οδόν

έξω, ουδέν ακούουν οι λαοί.

Renato Guttuso, Neighbourhood Rally, 1975. Acrylic and collage on paper, 210 x 200 cm. Photograph: Courtesy Galleria d’Arte Maggiore, Bologna.

Επιμέλεια Γ. Π. Σαββίδη. Τα Ποιήματα, Τ. Α’ 1897 - 1918, Ίκαρος 1963

BUT THE WISE PERCEIVE THINGS ABOUT TO HAPPEN

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923), Research (Una investigación o El Dr. Simarro en el Laboratorio) (1897), oil, 122 x 151 cm, Museo Sorolla, Madrid, Spain. Wikimedia Commons.

“For the gods perceive future things,

ordinary people things in the present, but

the wise perceive things about to happen.”

Philostratos, Life of Apollonios of Tyana, viii, 7.

Ordinary people know what’s happening now,

the gods know future things

because they alone are totally enlightened.

Of what’s to come the wise perceive

things about to happen.

Sometimes during moments of intense study

their hearing’s troubled: the hidden sound

of things approaching reaches them,

and they listen reverently, while in the street outside

the people hear nothing whatsoever.

Émile Friant (1863–1932), Political Discussion (1889), oil, dimensions and location not known. Wikimedia Commons.

Reprinted from C.P. CAVAFY: Collected Poems Revised Edition, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Translation copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Princeton University Press.