Monotony
September 25, 2009
Apologies for being fairly invisible for the past few weeks – a combination of deadlines and teaching have kept me occupied and largely away from here. Unfortunately grading begins tomorrow, so I don’t expect any respite soon. Here’s a poem by Cavafy to tide you over:
Monotony
One monotonous day follows another
equally monotonous. The same things
will happen again, and then will happen again,
the same moments will come and go.
A month passes by and brings another month.
Easy to guess what lies ahead:
all of yesterday’s boredom.
And tomorrow ends up no longer like tomorrow.
From C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992.
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“vous blessez mon coeur avec le langour monotone ”
– supposed D-day warning message sent to french underground members via BBC on or about 5 June 1944.
I always think of that message when I think of monotony.