ENGLISH - C.P. Cavafy Che Fece ... Il Gran Rifiuto
C.P. Cavafy "Che fece .... il gran rifiuto"
For some people the day comes
when they have to declare the great Yes
or the great No. It’s clear at once who has the Yes
ready within him; and saying it,
he goes from honor to honor, strong in his conviction.
He who refuses does not repent. Asked again,
he’d still say no. Yet that no—the right no—
drags him down all his life.
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Yet that no—the right no— undermines him all his life.
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Constantine Cavafy, “Che Fece ... Il Gran Refiuto,” translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, from C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems. Copyright © 1975 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Reprinted with the permission of Princeton University Press.
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and ...
2024-06-29
Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November. http://joebiden.com
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and ...
2024-06-29
We don’t choose our chapter of history. But we can choose who leads us through it. In this moment, with the perils the world is facing, there is nobody I would rather have sitting in the Oval Office than my husband. Joe tells the truth. Donald Trump lies every chance he gets.
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here is my reply to their posts ...
For some people the day comes when they have to declare the great Yes or the great No. Yet that no—the right no— undermines him all his life.
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/niactec ... https://sites.google.com/site/mykonstantinospetroukavafis/english-c-p-cavafy-che-fece-il-gran-rifiuto
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C.P. Cavafy "Che fece .... il gran rifiuto"
Some people come a day
where should the big Yes or the big No
to say
The introductory verses of the poem present us with the poet's reflection from the beginning. At some point "some people" are asked to choose something extremely important in their lives, i.e. they are faced with a crucial dilemma, with such an important decision that will define their lives as a whole. It is the moment when they will have to say the big Yes or the big No. This yes can be about either compromising with something required of them or taking on an extremely important responsibility, and correspondingly, no works as a refusal to forced compromises or excessive responsibilities. The poet, not wanting to limit the meaning range of his verses, does not define what this important decision is about, thus leaving these verses open to multiple interpretations, but also ready to express the reflection of many people.
Cavafy, however, emphasizes that this poem concerns "some people", not all, and this is because for many people such important dilemmas are never posed in their lives.
It is immediately apparent who has it
ready within himself the Yes, and saying it beyond
it goes to his honor and conviction.
Of the people who will be faced with the important dilemma, those who are ready to respond to what is asked of them, the people who have the Yes ready within them, are immediately apparent. They are the people who appear ready and willing to live up to the demands that others have of them, they are the ones who want, in every way, to appear worthy of the expectations that exist for them. People who have the big Yes ready, choose to fulfill the demands raised by their social environment and in doing so succeed in being accepted by others and honored for their choice.
It is, of course, important to realize that the people who will say yes, come to this decision because it is in line with their views and inner needs. They choose to answer positively, not because they are forced to, but because that decision fulfills their need to live in accord with their position and in accord with what is expected and required of them.
The Denyer does not repent. If asked again,
no he would say again. And yet he pays him
that no - the right - throughout his life.
Those who will refuse, those who will say the big No, reach this decision consciously and no matter how many times they were faced with the same dilemma, they would still say no. And yet, they will pay for this no throughout their lives, because their refusal means that they choose not to compromise with the demands and claims of others, they choose to break with social expectations and conventions, carving out the their own way. The big No requires great strength and determination, as society does not forgive those who do not conform to its dictates. The big No accompanies forever the one who dared to say it and weighs on him like a constant censure, like a constant disapproval. And while the people who will say no needed more courage and more mental strength, than those who said yes, they do not receive the same honor and respect. On the contrary, they experience the rejection and rejection of their fellow citizens, just because they did not accept to live according to the traditional concepts. The no that people who have the courage to refuse will say is right for them, because it goes along with their beliefs and opinions, that is, it expresses their personal identity, but it does not agree with society's opinions, that's why and are punished for their refusal.
The great refusal, therefore, is according to the poet a choice that requires mental strength and dynamism and cannot be made by cowardly or weak people. Cavafy, that is, taking the verse from Dante's Inferno: "che fece per vilta il gran rifiuto" removes per vilta (from cowardice), which in Dante's text refers
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to a specific person, and gives us a different version of people who say the big No. That is to say, while Dante's verse is the initial trigger for Cavafy's poem, Cavafy moves away from Dante's thought of the one who made the great denial out of cowardice, and presents a poem to honor the great deniers, those people who they have the courage and strength to say no to current morality, social conventions, outdated poetic techniques and everything else society tries to impose on people, locking them into a certain way of living and thinking. Cavafy knows what it means to say no and how much it costs to say no, which is why he does not accept the per vilta of the Dante's verse for any reason.
In a personal comment the poet records his own thought about the one who said the big no, leaving Dante's "from cowardice" aside.
"He refused because he thought conscientiously either that he was unfit for the work or that the work was unworthy of him or that the work should not be carried out or some similar logical reason. But someone else took up the task and succeeded—perhaps because he was the right person for that particular task, or because he possessed some special means, which altered or facilitated or improved the task or its results. The success of this other person reflects against the Denyer, and this is why, although the Denyer knew that his no was right, yet this No weighs on him throughout his life - they make it weigh on him , the suspicions and chatter and slanders and misrepresentations of many."
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Reference ...
Dante's Inferno
InOurTime 20081023 Dante's Inferno
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dante’s ‘Inferno’ - a medieval journey through the nine circles of Hell. “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”. This famous phrase is written above the gate of Hell in a 14th century poem by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. The poem is called the ‘Divine Comedy’ and Hell is known as ‘Dante’s Inferno’. It is a lurid vision of the afterlife complete with severed heads, cruel and unusual punishments and devils in frozen lakes. But the inferno is much more than a trip into the macabre - it is a map of medieval spirituality, a treasure house of early renaissance learning, a portrait of 14th century Florence, and an acute study of human psychology. It is also one of the greatest poems ever written. With, Margaret Kean, University Lecturer in English and College Fellow at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford; John Took, Professor of Dante Studies at University College London and Claire Honess, Senior Lecturer in Italian at the University of Leeds and Co-Director of the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies.
45 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqKAnHO_DA
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and ... in ...
ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time - Culture Podcast - Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqKAnHO_DA&list=PLH99V1T9pDs5iQX-WfSTqKP1h1b27NLca&index=111&t=371s
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