The night Pessoa met Cavafy

It seems that Pessoa and Cavafy met unexpectedly on a cruise ship in 1929. Nothing was planned, they didn´t know each other. They were supposedly on their way to London. Their real destination was New York. They both wanted to see the New World, but they hadn´t told anyone.

So many coincidences, how can it be... Two soul mates that met briefly and then took their separate ways again. Didn´t they feel it? Isn´t it unbelievable that they didn´t try to keep in touch?

The beautiful documentary about this encounter, by Greek director Stelios Charalambopoulos, was shown today at the Gulbenkian Foundation. Among others, we heard this poem by Cavafy, one of my favourites.

AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
And if you can’t shape your life the way you want,
at least try as much as you can
not to degrade it
by too much contact with the world,
by too much activity and talk.

Try not to degrade it by dragging it along,
taking it around and exposing it so often
to the daily silliness
of social events and parties,
until it comes to seem a boring hanger-on.

(transl. Edmund Keeley)