Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot (2)

Κρίμα να μην μπορώ να παραθέσω όλο το ποιητικό κείμενο. Αναγκαστικά λοιπόν, το τέλος του βιβλίου τώρα. Που είναι βέβαια μια αρχή.

V

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word
is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end
and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire,
down the sea’s throat
Or to an illegible stone; and that is where
we start.
We die with the dying :
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead :
See, they return, and bring us with them,
The moment of the rose and the moment
of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration.

………………………

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always –
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.