I *heart* Bombay (and well..Boston)

I'm urban..in the way other people are mountain-people or tunafish junkies. I love city life...something about dreary concrete blocks and grumpy people totally gets my juices flowing. Ergo, this will be a blog about me, my two favourite cities (Bombay and Boston), my addiction to Vietnamese coffee and my views on Gregorian chant and it's efficacy in curing some types of tympannic membrane rupture. Enjoy!

Saturday, November 26, 2005

For M. (Who I remembered last night)

In Despair

He's lost him completely. And he now tries to find
his lips in the lips of each new lover,
he tries in the embrace of each new lover
to convince himself that it's the same young man,
that it's to him he gives himself.

He's lost him completely, as though he never existed.
He wanted, his lover said, to save himself
from the tainted, sick form of sexual pleasure,
the tainted, shameful form of sexual pleasure.
There was still time, he said, to save himself.

He's lost him completely, as though he never existed.
Through fantasy, through hallucination,
he tries to find his lips in the lips of other young men,
he longs to feel his kind of love once more.

- Konstantinos P. Kavafy (1923)

11 Comments:

  • At 5:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    In despair he's lost completely
    Through joy, through pain
    To save himself from the quaint whispers
    he's moving on, he said to his lover
    now he's lost himself completely in despair

    Hoping to come out of it....
    Sanjay

     
  • At 8:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    oh, come on. fucking get over it. and enough with 21st century sex panic poetry.

     
  • At 4:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    How amusing that you chose K.P. Cavafy (I always thought it was with a C, maybe only on this side of the pond) -- you'll see why I am amused in a week or so ;)

    Had I known you liked him so much I would have sent some Lawrence Durell (though you, being the voracious reader that you are, may already have consumed the Alexandria quartet.)
    As for (I know, I am a few posts back) why Azkaban is your favorite of the Potter films, perhaps it has to do with the company?
    IGC

     
  • At 9:46 PM, Blogger a guppie said…

    Love the poignancy of Cavafy's poems. And Vik follow ur own advice and give a call sometimes.

     
  • At 10:26 PM, Blogger scorpio said…

    Visited your blog following a link in Viraf's. Amazing. I'm adding it to my links.
    my blog's fragmented rainbows certainly not as briliant as yours...

    frank krishner

     
  • At 1:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    .........no one wants to lose...

     
  • At 1:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    everybody need somebody
    few lucky ones have a lost love...

     
  • At 11:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    There's no redemption in this poem. Its utterly bleak. Have posted a similar themed (but less dark) poem on my blog

     
  • At 5:15 AM, Blogger Vikster said…

    Sanjay: Same here :-) Exquisite despair I call it.

    Anydamnguy: I would too..except we have no cold nights in Bombay..

    Anonymous: Sure i will :-) Help me get over it...LOL!

    IGC: NO! You did not just send me a book of Cafavy with my nemesis! I hope you enclosed something with the book like you did the last time..I'm still reading that leter..
    I read the Alex quartet some time ago..perhaps I should get back and read it again now that I could possibly feel it.
    As for Azkaban, yes to the company. Definitely the company (The Aquarium was nice too..as was the post drinks talk..LOL!)

    Guppie: You know Cafavy! You never cease to amaze me with your knowledge.

    Scorpio: Thanks..good to see you on here..

    Kestrel: True.

    Anonymous: FOr a moment I thought you were going to throw me the ol' cliche about love and loss...

    Sud: It is bleak. That's what I like about it. It describes my insides like you wouldn't even believe.

     
  • At 10:13 AM, Blogger Toni Farley said…

    Same to V. Yesterday was one year from the last kiss...

     
  • At 4:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I love Kavafy. His poem was on the first page of the journal tht I'd edited.

     

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