HERE IS no brighter thing than Truth.

Do you search with love and madness to find her?

Is your research fruitful like the Night,

knowing for sure that the Sun will burst pompously?

your research like the Night, when no matter how many darknesses

may whip, comely something always sparkles, the plenty

of the stars, or, at least, that anxious through clouds

dull dawn of a light that leads.

Contrariwise, who doesn't care for Truth,

is his carelessness' supposed serenity

like the eternal night of the wicked death, - fruitless,

without any thing to be feared or expected, without beginning,

without end, unconscious, like the bare concept

of death, without trophies of colors, without even the splendor

of a future Judgment with trumpets.

Σχῆμα

Δὲν εἶναι φωτεινότερο πρᾶγμα ἀπὸ τὴν Ἀλήθεια·

ψάχνεις μ' ἔρωτα καὶ μανία νὰ τήνε βρεῖς;

εἶναι ἡ ἔρευνά σου σὰν τὴ Νύχτα καρποφόρα,

ποὺ ἔχει ἀσφαλές, ὅτι θὰ σκάσει ὁ Ἥλιος πομπωδῶς·

ἡ ἔρευνά σου σὰν τὴ Νύχτα, ποὺ ὅσα ἐρέβη

καὶ ἂν δέρνουν, κάτι σιγολάμπει, εἴτε ἡ πληθώρα

τῶν ἄστρων, εἴτε, ἔστω, ἡ ἀγωνιώδης μέσῳ συγνέφων

θολὴ ἐκείνη φωταύγεια ποὺ ὁδηγάει.

Ἀντίθετα, ὅποιος δὲν νοιάζεται γιὰ τὴν Ἀλήθεια,

εἶναι τῆς ἀμεριμνησίας του ἡ δῆθεν γαλήνη

σὰν τὴν αἰώνια νύχτα τοῦ κακοῦ θανάτου, - ἄκαρπη,

δίχως οὐδενὸς πράγματος φόβο ἢ ἐλπίδα, δίχως ἀρχή,

δίχως τέλος, ἀσυνείδητη, σὰν τὴν ψιλὴ ἔννοια

θανάτου δίχως τρόπαια χρωμάτων, δίχως κὰν τὴν στιλπνότητα

Κρίσεως μελλοντικιᾶς μετὰ σαλπίγγων.

Cf.

PLATO : Wisdom ||| MACARIUS THE GREAT : Overcome by Heavenly Desire ||| CAVAFY : As much as you can