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This is where it all began for me. Alexandria, my home town, Alexander's fair city. He founded it, but never saw it. They brought him back there only to bury him.Through the eyes of my soul I can still see her as she was.
Enchanting.
I have not been back since I left her in 1959. It was not my choice to leave. It was the circumstances and as the Arabs say:"Kismet".
They tell me she has changed. They say she has become modernized, more efficient, followed the times. That is why I have not been back. I want to keep her in my heart, intact, a bit frayed at the edges perhaps, a bit old fashioned, but mine,
as she will always be..
My Alexandria is the city of Cavafi (The Master), of L. Durrel, of Cleopatra and Anthony, of Sallah-el-din and Um Kalthum.
A smiling city.In the midst of richness or in the deepest of poverty, there is always a smile.
A place where there are miles of golden beaches where a child builds dreamworlds with her sandcastles.
Where the cacophony of the"souk" in the old city, takes on a melody of its own in one's ears.
Where the cosmopolitan crowds make you feel you are really at the center of the world.
And when night falls, the lullaby of the surf from the open window offers more magical worlds to a sleepy child.
"New lands you will not find,
you will not find other seas.
The city will follow you.
You will roam the same
streets.
And you will age in the same neighborhoods;
in these same houses you will grow gray."
Constantine P. Cavafy
from "The City" (1910)
Translation by G. Barbanis
If you want to know more about Alexandria, here are some useful links:
Alexandria
Alexandria Guide
Um Kalthum
Kavafis
G. Barbanis Home page
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All graphics, photos and text are © P. Proeschold.
Please do not take any without written permission.
Page last updated: September 18, 2008.
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